School headmaster arrested for making students clean toilet in Tamil Nadu

ERODE: The district police arrested headmistress J Geetharani (53) of Palakarai government primary school for allegedly making the students clean school toilets. She was put on suspension by the School Education department.

The issue came to light when a victim's mother filed a complaint at the Perundurai Police Station. According to police sources, she alleged that her 10-year-old son (Class 5 student) developed a fever and was admitted to IRT Government Medical College Hospital in Perundurai. On questioning her child, she found out that he cleaned his school toilet.

"The school has two toilets, one toilet for students and another for the teachers. My son and a few other students were regularly cleaning those toilets. On November 18, students cleaned the top of the toilet tank and got bitten by mosquitoes. After bringing my son back from the hospital, I went to school and got to know that the headmistress forced the Schedule Caste students to clean the toilet," the agricultural labourer said.

A caste Hindu school principal Geetha Rani in Tamil Nadu’s Erode district was allegedly forcing six Dalit students to clean a school toilet.

Police have filed a case under the Juvenile Justice Act and the SC/ST Act. “The headmistress of the school at Palakarai is absconding....

— The Dalit Voice (@ambedkariteIND) December 3, 2022

Based on the victim's mother's complaint, the Perundurai Police have filed a case against the headmistress under IPC section 284 (Negligent conduct with respect to poisonous substance), Section 75 of The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) act 2015, The SC and ST Amendment act 2015 of 3(1)(r) and 3(1)(I) and arrested Geetharani.

A video regarding this complaint went viral on social media. Subsequently, the District Education Officers (Elementary Education) conducted an inquiry and suspended the headmistress. 

S Moorthy, Coordinator of the Federation of Educational Development, said, “Making students clean toilets is reprehensible. The responsibility of cleaning toilets in schools should be given to the respective local administrations. Should not be given to school headmasters. Also, only Rs 1000 per month is allotted by the school education department to the workers for cleaning toilets in primary schools. Rs 1500 is allocated to middle schools. Who will come for this wage? It should be raised. Otherwise modern technical facilities for cleaning toilets should be provided in schools. Toilets should not be left in the hands of teachers.”

Officials from the School Education Department of Erode said, "Cleaning of toilets in schools has been ordered to be carried out by the local government department. For this, a specific amount is paid directly to the local bodies by the school education department. Not so in schools in Panchayats. That work is carried out through headmasters. They have also been ordered to do this through the local administration staff."