In TN, Dalit kids made to clean toilet in govt school; criminal case filed

Police in Tamil Nadu are searching for the officials and principal of the panchayat union school located in Erode district's Palakarai for allegedly coercing at least six Scheduled Caste children to clean a toilet. One of the students from the marginalised community contracted a mosquito-borne viral infection after the incident, which has caused uproar bringing back into focus the caste-based discrimination and mistreatment.

Kids seen with mugs, sticks coming out of school's toilet

A criminal case on Friday was filed by the parent of one of the school students who got to know about the emotional and physical trauma the child was put through by the school's headmistress. The son was now suffering from dengue and was hospitalised after he was made to clean the toilet in the school premises.

The incident was recorded after the children were seen coming out of the school's toilet with sticks and mugs. Of the total 40 kids that studied in the class, only the kids belonging to the Dalit community were asked to clean the washrooms. 

"When I asked him how he got dengue, my son said he was bitten by mosquitos when he handled bleaching powder and cleaned the toilet daily,” mother S Jayanthi was reported as saying on Friday, narrating the ordeal. 

The kids who belonged to the marginalised community were, in fact, being made to clean the toilets for six months now, it was learned. The boy who was now hospitalized with dengue studied in the fifth grade and was subjected to torture and mistreatment along with other students who belonged to the lower caste.

The students from the minority community were identified and assigned the questionable errand by their school headmistress Geetha Rani. They were subjected to oppression for not belonging to the upper caste community and coming from a Dalit group.

The incident came to light among many such caste-based distinction cases that continue in some states despite that India's government outlawed the ancient untouchability after independence from British rule in 1955.  The officials, school headmistress, and those accused have been absconding, and the police have launched a search operation to nab them. A case under the Juvenile Justice Act was registered on Friday, and the cops have invoked the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.