Private And Government Schools Have Become ‘Abuse Traps’ In India, The Increasing Cases Of Obscenity And Sexual Advances In Schools, Are Students Safe?

Schools are meant for imparting education, and a teacher is considered to be a ‘guru’ someone who gives education and important life lessons to students but what happens when those who are looked up to become predators?

The vulnerability of young children who are helpless and come to these schools are often subjected to sexual advances, shown obscene content and in some cases taken advantage of.

In yet another incident reported yesterday – that of a drunk UP Headmaster who was seen sleeping naked in front of students, the agitated parents and villagers claimed that the teacher has often indulged in obscene acts in front of the students.

The headmaster of a government primary school in Uttar Pradesh‘s Bahraich has been suspended for allegedly indulging in obscene acts in front of students in a drunken state, according to an official, but is that enough?

In a purported video, Durga Prasad Jaiswal, posted at Shivpur Bairagi Primary School in Visheshwarganj block, was seen sleeping naked in school in an inebriated condition, much to the embarrassment of the students. However, this act according to the students and the informed parents is not a one-off case but a repeat offence, as the headmaster is in the habit of taking off his clothes and resting in the classrooms.

The girl students thoroughly embarrassed by his disgusting antics took the matter into their own hands and stopped going to school, while an enquiry into the matter is on, and handed over a suspension for now, but what about legally apprehending the headmaster? (shouldn’t even be addressed with this title).

“We got a complaint against Durga Prasad Jaiswal, primary school teacher and headmaster in Shivpur Bairagi Basik School of Visheshwarganj block, that he comes to school in an inebriated state. A video of the same also surfaced recently. However, the video is yet to be verified. He was suspended on July 24 on the basis of a preliminary inquiry conducted by the block education officer,” BSA Avyakt Ram Tiwari said.

However, this case doesn’t rest here alone (taking off clothes) the teacher in question, Durga Prasad Jaiswal, who had been serving as the acting headmaster at the school for nearly five years, during one of his class sessions, called a female student near his desk and engaged in inappropriate behaviour with her while seated on a chair and a concerned person recorded the incident on video.

The fact is that his behaviour has been reported and complaints poured in almost six months ago, but no action was taken at that time until an anonymous individual from the village discreetly recorded a video of the teacher’s behaviour and only once this evidence came to light, did the concerned parents demand appropriate action to be taken against the teacher for his misconduct.

What if this video was not recorded, what evidence would have been there against him?
What is even more concerning is that the police, ASP Nagar, Kunwar Gyanjay Singh, stated that no written complaint has been received yet and that once a written complaint is received, immediate action will be taken to proceed with the case, but why even wait for a written complaint, isn’t the video enough proof and what about the students’ word for it?

Schools As ‘Abuse Traps’

Meanwhile, in April this year, a teacher was held for showing obscene videos to class 6 students in Punjab’s Phagwara. The teacher, Rajiv Sharma, was arrested on the complaint of the father of a school girl, according to Satnampura SHO Gurinderjit Singh.

The school teacher allegedly showed an obscene video on an LCD screen in a classroom and made vulgar gestures to girl students of class six, the accused was a teacher in the government middle smart school of Gobindpura Mohalla.

The Vulnerability Exploited
From posh private schools to dilapidated government ones, children of all ages are increasingly getting molested and even raped while in school.

According to activists who are fighting for children’s right to safe education rather than free or subsidised education (government schools) the number of students who get molested every year in state government schools would be nothing less than a couple of hundred.

While these numbers may just be the reported cases, most of which may be from private schools in urban areas, the number of cases in the government schools in the city and semi-urban localities and even villages take the next place in the abuse chart and may go largely unreported.

It is ironic that the police officials in cities when asked about the reported cases, city police officials said that the number of cases reported in the past two years, itself would be an indication of the types of ‘abuse traps’ the schools have inadvertently become.

Imagine, if this is the case in point in city government schools then what would be the scenario in semi-urban and villages?

In one of the cases, a 10-year-old child was repeatedly molested by her physical education teacher and this is a case in point that happened in a private school, so what happened?

The parents complained at first but they stayed away from registering a case and hence the teacher got away with just one dismissal order when he should have actually been punished for statutory rape, according to a police official.

In a more gruesome case, a 14-year-old class 9th student was repeatedly raped by her teacher and was forced to deliver a child as the parents were completely unaware of her pregnancy. This case was reported from a city government school and the only punishment given to the accused was a suspension!

Students Caught In A Vicious Cycle –
One would assume that if a child is being molested in school the same would be told/reported to parents and while some do many dont. And those who show the courage to report, many are not supported by the parents, as there is a great fear among parents to come out with such cases purely out of societal embarrassment etc.

Therefore, what do the schools do?
They just dismiss the individual concerned and the same individual would move on to yet another school and continue to molest other students.

The Way Forward
The rising number of such cases clearly shows that the time to act is now, there needs to be a redressal mechanism for students’ grievances along with the implementation of the Right to Education Act ( RTA) and there needs to be a formulation of a time-bound framework for starting such redressal mechanisms in schools along with the implementation of sexual harassment combat mechanisms in schools.