Tamil Nadu police have initiated a search and arrest operation for the Headmistress of a government school in the state's Erode district after she allegedly forced six children belonging to the scheduled caste community to clean a school toilet.
Complaint filed under SC/ST Act
The children's parents have filed a complaint with the police. A case has been registered under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, besides invoking the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
As per a complaint filed by Jayanthi, the mother of a class five student, the "HM Ms Geetha Rani singled out only SC children to clean the toilet," NDTV reported.
SC students being targeted
Jayanthi says she was made aware of this after her son had contracted dengue and was hospitalised recently. "When I asked him how he got dengue, my son said he was bitten by mosquitos when he handled bleaching powder and cleaned the toilet daily", she said.
"Last week, a parent saw them coming out of the toilet with sticks and mugs. When asked, they said they cleaned the toilet, and that the headmistress asked them to do it. 40 children study in that class, and most of them are our scheduled castes children. She has asked only our children to do this," she added.
A police official confirmed the violation and told NDTV that "The head mistress of the panchayat union school at Palakarai is absconding. We have formed special teams to arrest her. Investigation is on."
