About 40 girls of a residential school in Supaul district in north Bihar were thrashed by young boys and their parents on Saturday evening for resisting sexual advances.
The boys used to pass lewd remarks and write vulgar things on the walls of the girls’ school. And when some girls found one boy writing on wall they caught him and reprimanded him. In retaliation, the students of Middle School, Trivenigunj which is situated close to the girls’ school, their parents, and village youths armed with lathi and hockey sticks stormed the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya at Daparkha village and started beating the girl students mercilessly. Nobody was there to stop them, said eyewitnesses.
At the time of the attack the minor girls, mostly belonging to SC, ST and EBCs, were playing in the school ground after classes. They were rushed to referral hospital at Trivenigunj block. And two of them were referred to Sadar hospital in Supaul in critical conditions.
The warden of the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya hostel Reema Raj said she alerted the school guard and informed police when she came to know about the incident. Police reached the spot after one hour when the attackers left the premises.
Education Minister Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma said it is a serious matter and promised that strict action would be taken against the attackers. “We are planning to put in security arrangements in girls’ residential schools to avoid such incidents. Female constables and security personnel will be stationed at girls’ residential schools,” he said.
Supaul DM Baidyanath Yadav said a case has been registered against the attackers and the accused would be taken to task. The DM said both the girls and boys schools are located in same premises with common playground. “The girls have complained against boys for passing vulgar remarks and writing objectionable things on the wall.
They were resisting it and one day the girls also caught a few boys indulging in wall writing and beat them,” he said.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar made no reference of this horrible incident on Sunday when he was speaking at JD (U)’s Samaj Sudhar Vahini programme and spoke about women empowerment and girls’ education.
He said the enrolment of girls has increased manifold after his Government’s schemes of providing school uniform and cycles.