Thousands of parents on Sunday blocked the busy Tollygunge crossing in South Kolkata demanding arrest of the principal of an up market school where a 4-year-old child was sexually assaulted by her physical training teachers on Thursday.
The guardians alleged the principal of the school — run by a top industrial house of the country — was trying not only to shield the accused but also was criminally reckless in implementing security measures despite a similar case was reported in the school a few years ago.
The kindergarten student was allegedly abused inside a toilet during the school hours and incident became known when she returned with pain in her private parts and her mother found blood dripping. Sexual assault was confirmed following medical examinations.
More surprises awaited a harrowed community of guardians when it was reported that the co-education school that charges in the vicinity of Rs 1.40 lakh per year had no gender-specific toilets. There were no CCTV camera fitted either in the school “despite the earlier incident that was reported in 2014,” fuming guardians complained. The criminal indifference of the principal and a group of teachers was manifest from the her sustained denial of the accusations even as she said “the child had no PT classes on the said date,” besides arguing “she returned home with her mother quite normally which proves that she did not get her injuries in the school.”
What provoked the guardians further was by a show of scandalous obduracy by the school management which apart from fixing CCTV cameras at the school gate — that the guardians complained as a bid to identify the protesting faces — declared closure of the institution indefinitely. “Such an act projects the blatant insensitivity and compliance on the part of the school authorities. It is a silent measure to browbeat us into withdrawing our agitation. Instead of putting cameras inside the premises they are putting there at the gate first. Again by closing the school they are playing with the future of the students as school exams are going on now,” said the Guardians Forum. The State commission for women’s rights have recommended thorough investigation and criminal action against the principal. The teachers who had since been arrested were booked under Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act (POCSO) formulated in 2012 in order to effectively address sexual abuse and exploitation of children.
Adding shock to misery report of another KG student being similarly abused in yet another school run by a different Trust related to the same top industrial house, sources said. Here the incident took place three months ago. Notwithstanding an FIR being lodged the school denied charges and the police allegedly allowed the investigation to lapse in time.
What tended to surprise a section of the guardians is a silence on the part of a habitually Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee “a woman herself,” parents piqued. “It seems that some schools are taking advantage of their proximity to the Government so that strings can be pulled from elsewhere,” she added. Curiously Bengal currently occupies second position in crime against women. When contacted State Education Minister Partho Chatterjee said law would take its own course.