Board official says students can’t be touched inappropriately for checks

Pune: Several girl students taking the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination on Saturday alleged that the staffers of MIT Vishwashanti Gurukul Higher Secondary School in Loni-Kalbhor strip-searched them on the pretext of preventing them from carrying chits to the exam centre.
“I was menstruating on the day of our first HSC examination paper on February 21. Two lady staffers asked me to remove my inner wear to check for chits. Despite my protests, I was forced to do so. I feel humiliated,” said a 17-year-old complainant.

The girl students who came forward to complain against the MIT management claimed that they were in a trauma after the incident. “We remained quiet because we were scared and humiliated. They used to take us to a room and ask us to remove our over-coat and then one of the staff members would push her hand inside our shirt and inner wear to check for chits. How can we write the examination after undergoing something as violating as this?” asked a student.

The MIT management denied the allegation and said the staffers had only frisked the girls and nobody was asked to take off their clothes at any point before, during or after the examination. The officials further alleged that the entire issue was being created to malign the MIT’s name as unlike other centres, it was taking strict action against cheating. They claimed that the students could not digest it.

The alleged strip-search has been happening since the first day of the examination on February 21, the day the students had to write the English language paper. For the next examination — secretarial practices — on February 26, the same was repeated. After the organization of commerce and management paper on February 28, one of the girl students mustered courage and complained to her parents about the checking practice in the college.

Soon parents talked to each other and realized that many girls faced the same problem, said a father of Class XII girl student, who was also allegedly strip-searched.

“All parents gathered together on the institute’s campus and tried to talk to the management about it. Then we went to the police station to file an FIR. The management was very rude to us and wasn’t even ready to listen to our grievance,” said the parent.

Chandrakant Salunkhe, another parent, said he would be writing to the Maharashtra Human Rights Commission against the gross violation.

The students allegedly strip-searched at MIT — an HSC examination centre for the first time — are of Prithviraj Kapoor High School and Junior College. “Students of two more schools are appearing for the examination here but only we were strip-searched. They would not allow parents to even enter the premises but anybody and everybody from MIT would roam around the campus during the examination,” said another girl student.

The girl students demanded that the board officials should take action against the MIT management.

Police stand

The investigating officer, Mahesh Dhawan of the Loni-Kalbhor police, said, “An FIR has been lodged against the two women staffers who allegedly strip-searched the complainant girl under IPC Section 304 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (sections 8 and 10). We are in the process of checking the statements of her four friends and other girl students who appeared for the examination.”

Dhawan said the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Pune division, had been asked to furnish details on what forms of checking were allowed during the board exams and what other norms and conditions should be followed while checking when there was a suspicion of copying.

“We will include more people in the FIR after further investigation,” said Dhawan.

A policeman on the condition of anonymity said the two staffers were being made a scapegoat in the entire process. “The women named in the FIR are just security staff at the college. They would do whatever the management asks them to do and not according to their own will,” he said.

While the demand of changing the centre is rife, T N Supe, the divisional chairman of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, has denied the chances of it happening.

“It is true that the centre was shifted to MIT because the previous centre had a serious problem of mass copying. But the students cannot be touched inappropriately. They can only be asked to turn out their pockets for checking. We will conduct an inquiry of our own.”

Another official said all the relevant members had been asked to appear before the board for further enquiry. “We may send some people from the board to this exam centre for the remaining papers but all depends on tomorrow’s (Sunday) meeting,” said Supe.

Sudhakar Pakhare, the deputy education officer sent to the college, said, “Both the staffers and the management have given an undertaking saying that they frisked the children but never asked them to take off their clothes. I was unable to talk to the students though.”