Arunachal Pradesh: NHRC ask govt to pay Rs 5,000 to 88 students forced to undress

New Delhi : The National Human Rights Commission on Tuesday asked the Arunachal Pradesh government to pay Rs 5,000 each to 88 school girls who were forced to strip as a form of punishment in November 2017. The shameful incident took place in the school in Papum Pare district of Arunachal Pradesh, India’s northeastern state.

The commission, in a statement, said the directive comes after the state government confirmed the incident and informed the human rights body that the act of three teachers had been considered inhumane and cruel. “Their action on minor girl students was against the basic human dignity and decency,” the commission said, adding that the state education department suspended one teacher and removed two others from service.

According to the NHRC statement, the state government has also served a show cause notice to the chairperson of Arunachal Farmers’ Development Society which runs the school, asking an explanation on why the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the society and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Rajya Mission in Itanagar, should not be terminated. The state has also directed the society to replace male headmasters and teachers engaged in all Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas and to install cameras in the girls’ hostel 

It was on November 23 when two assistant teachers and a junior teacher allegedly forced the students of Class 6 and 7 of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya in Tani Happa (New Sagalee) village in Papum Pare district to undress in front of other students. They were supposedly punished because one of the students had written “something vulgar” about the head teacher and a girl. The Arunachal Police filed a First Information Report against the school and some of its teachers after the incident took place.