A 35-year-old teacher was arrested on Friday for allegedly making a 7-year-old Dalit boy clean faeces at a municipal school in Namakkal district.

R. Vijayalakshmi, the teacher forced the Class II student to clean faeces of a Class III student. The teacher was arrested after the boy’s father R Veerasamy filed a complaint at the Namakkal town police station.

The child’s father told The New Indian Express, “My son could not do anything but to remove the faeces with his hands due to pressure from the teacher.”

The teacher was produced before the judicial magistrate’s court in Nammakal and then was sent to the women’s special cell in Salem.

Agitated by the incident, parents and relatives of the child with political leaders and social outfits, including Ramasamy, district secretary of Untouchability Eradication Front, and M P Kumanan, district secretary of VCK took the issue to the school authorities, according to TNIE. The Dalits asked for strict action against the teacher. Due to increasing tension, police personnel were deployed in that area.

The Dalits also claimed that the teacher was showing discrimination with their children for long. They said that she did not allow the Dalit students to participate in dance events in the annual day last year.

The issue was taken to the Head Mistress and the children were allowed to perform separately in the event, according to TNIE report.

The Elementary Education Department is also taking action against the teacher. This teacher has been working at the municipal school for the past seven years.