A school principal in Uttar Pradesh' second largest district reportedly stripped and paraded a group of girls for not completing their homework. The teacher took the step despite corporal punishment being outlawed in the country.
Also read: Bengaluru: 7-year-old beaten black and blue by tutor for not doing homework
It is assuring that the teacher was suspended immediately after it was brought to the attention of authorities.
Parents of around 15 class 8 girls at Electricity Board Junior High School for Girls in Anpara in Sonbhadra district had protested at the school because of the punishment they were given for not completing their homework.
What was worse was news organisations claiming to show the video of the girls, who were forced to remove their skirt and run laps around the ground.
The humiliation they faced at the hands of the female teacher, Meena Singh, did not end there. She then filmed the class 8 girls, who had to undergo the ordeal on Saturday. Singh was suspended on Monday.
Parents of the girls reported the matter to the district magistrate and urged him to take action. Sonbhadra DM Chandra Bhushan Singh told the TOI that Singh was suspended with immediate effect until departmental investigation is over.
"The general manager of Anpara Thermal Power Project, which runs the school, has also been asked to take appropriate action," the DM said.
Singh has denied the allegations levelled against her.
She had reportedly asked the girls to memorise Sanskrit shlokas, according to the complainants. When they couldn't recite them she ordered the girls out of the classroom. The girls were first asked to sit in a position like a rooster, another form of corporal punishment. After which, they were ordered to remove their skirts and run around the school campus, officials said.
Singh said that she did not order the girls to remove their skirts. She told them to recite the shlokas and were instructed to report to their parents as they hadn't completed their homework, Singh said.
