'Harassment' forces 50 girls to flee

TNN / Aug 5, 2006, 03:21 IST

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Corporal punishment and poor food prompted 50 students to flee the campus by scaling its walls in Ahmedabad.

AHMEDABAD: Corporal punishment and poor quality of food prompted 50 teenage students of the Vikas Gruh Girls High School to flee the premises of the sprawling campus in Paldi by scaling its walls.
Later, they lodged a complaint against the school authorities. Around 11.30 am on Friday, 50 girls from classes VIII, IX and X of the residential school scaled the campus wall to escape "mental and physical harassment" by the institution authorities.
They refused to go back to the school and were later taken to Mahitpatram Ashram in Raipur after police intervention. Two class X students, Jagruti Chauhan and Payal Goswami, had to be rushed to VS Hospital after they were allegedly hit in the stomach by Vikas Gruh secretary Damayanti Bhatt.
Payal later lodged a police complaint accusing four people of harassment, including Damayanti Bhatt, superintendent Kashmira Bhatt and attendants Sharda Patel and Bhavna Patel.

"We have been desperately trying to contact the social defence department of the state government for the past two days. Since we were not allowed to go out, we had to scale the wall. That's when Damayantiben hit us," said Jagruti and Payal.
Trouble began after their parents brought some snacks on Sunday. "Instead of giving the food to us, the authorities ate it all," said one of the girls, Asmita Modi.
Another student, Dipika Panchal, said, "We are often served food which has worms and dead lizards in it." However, school authorities termed it an overreaction.
"We collect the food and store it in a dry place, to be distributed later among the students every day. We have never physically abused them," Damayanti Bhatt said. Minister for education, women and child welfare Anandiben Patel assured of an immediate inquiry.

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