Rs 25,000 compensation to girls stripped in UP school

Sending out a tough message, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to pay a compensation of Rs 25,000 to each of the 70 girl students who were stripped by the warden of a government residential school in Muzaffarnagar last year to check for menstrual blood.

The rights body has also sought the state government to submit proof of the payment of compensation to the students within six weeks.

Many of these 70 students reportedly left the Kasturba Gandhi Residential School in Muzaffarnagar after the incident.

The NHRC has directed the chief secretary of the Uttar Pradesh government to submit the action taken report (arranging counselling for these students and persuading them to join the school again) within six weeks “positively.”

The commission has warned in its directive to the state chief secretary that it would take further action invoking powers vested into it under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 if the report is not duly submitted to it.

“The magisterial inquiry reveals that Surekha Tomar, the warden of Kasturba Gandhi Residential School, was found guilty of inhuman behaviour with the minor girls. Her direction to strip off the children was not justifiable. Hence, it is proved, that the public servant had violated the human rights of the minor girl students,” the rights body noted in its order.

The commission has passed its order hearing on a complaint filed by a lawyer and a rights activist Radhakanta Tripathy.

According to media reports, the school warden ordered for stripping of the 70 girls to check who was menstruating after specs of blood in a bathroom at school was spotted. The girls were allegedly also made to sit in the classroom naked.

Some of the parents of the girl students later filed a complaint with the police. As the issue sparked a massive row in the state, the UP government ordered for a magisterial inquiry into the incident.

The district magistrate on March 31, 2017 terminated the services of the warden with immediate effect and the police registered an FIR against Tomar in connection with the incident.