A ten-year-old girl was subjected to repeated sexual assault by minor boys at a government school in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvallur district after a teacher from the school allegedly ignored her complaint. On August 2, three minor boys from classes 9 and 10 allegedly assaulted the survivor, a student of class 6, inside the school premises. According to the survivor, she raised a complaint with her class teacher who neglected it, following which she was assaulted again on August 3 and 4.
On August 4, after the survivor complained of stomach pain, Sharath Kumar* , her father, was asked to meet with the Head Mistress (HM) in person and informed that his daughter wasn’t eating properly or responding to her teachers and friends. “The HM called my daughter ‘mentally ill’ and asked me to take her to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) in Ayanavaram for a check-up. I am not very educated so when the HM said, I took my daughter to IMH. We were redirected to the Egmore Children’s Hospital from there. On August 7, I took her to the children’s hospital where she opened up and that's when I knew what had happened to her,” Sharath Kumar told TNM.
“After the doctors recorded the child’s statement, medical examinations were conducted on August 8, and the assault was ascertained,” he added.
On the following day, a First Information Report (FIR) was filed with the Avadi All Women’s Police Station. K Murthy, State Convenor, Right to Education Forum Tamil Nadu, who had accessed the FIR had said that the full names of the minor boys and their initials were omitted. “Their fathers’ names were also left out of the FIR. As a consequence, when one of the accused minors was pulled up, he said that there was another boy with the same name in class 9. This caused some delay in detaining the minors but eventually, the victim upon arriving from the hospital after treatment, was able to identify them,” Murthy added.
Avadi’s DCP N Bhaskaran said that the minors were produced before the Juvenile Justice Board. As per the directors of the board, the minor boys are being counseled and are continuing in the same school, he said. However, TNM learned that the victim has been shifted to a boarding school in Poonamallee.
Child rights activist Devaneyan commented, “This outcome of the boys continuing in the same village and school while the girl is shifted to a boarding school is a derivative of the patriarchal system. While it is true that in such cases where both the perpetrators and the victim are minors, the approach has to be victim-based for both parties, the girl has suffered extreme trauma and she shouldn’t have been displaced.”
With regards to the allegations against the teachers of the government school, the Penn Thozhilalargal Sangam has submitted a letter to the Chief Education Officer (CEO) of Thiruvallur district, requesting a probe. However, the CEO’s office told TNM that the teachers have denied all allegations. “We have initiated safety measures in the school like installing CCTV cameras,” an official said.