COIMBATORE: Five Scheduled Caste (SC) students of Class 5 have been allegedly forced to clean their school's toilets on a rotation basis. The incident has been reported from the Panchayat Union Primary School at Thottipalayam in SS Kulam block, Coimbatore district.
The students' parents on Friday questioned the headmistress for the action that reeks of child abuse and casteist discrimination but the latter refuted their claim.
Meanwhile, educational officers have launched a departmental inquiry against the headmistress. A police probe has also started based on a complaint from the parents.
According to sources, parents of five children, along with the local head from Thottipalayam village, visited the school on Friday and confronted the headmistress for forcing the children to clean the toilets.
The headmistress claimed that she did not force the students to clean the toilets; rather, she stated that she had only instructed them to wash their legs after using the bathroom.
The Block Educational Officer (BEO) visited the spot and conducted an inquiry. The parents urged the BEO to initiate departmental action against the headmistress, sources added.
It is said the students had been irregular in attending classes in recent weeks.
In a video circulating on social media, a mother charged that for the past few months her son had been cleaning the toilets once every two days on the instructions of the headmistress. She claimed a separate attendance record was allegedly maintained for this at the school.
She claimed that if her son failed to do it, the headmistress beat him and even threatened to issue a transfer certificate (TC); fearing this, he was at home without going to school for two weeks.
"When I repeatedly asked why he was not going to school, my son said the headmistress was forcing him, along with four other Class 5 children, to clean the toilet," she said.
Repeated attempts to reach the school headmistress Umamaheswari went in vain.
Coimbatore District Educational Officer for primary Ravichandran told TNIE that an inquiry is underway.