Hyderabad: A senior official working with the Telangana Minorities Residential Educational Institutions Society (TMREIS) said that heads of all schools (from fifth standard to 12th) have been told to tighten monitoring all the health and movements of the wards.
An incident came to light in the last week of March wherein a girl student of the 12th standard delivered a baby. The baby was abandoned in a filmy style at an isolated place in Narayankhed village. Luckily, some passersby noticed the cries of the baby and informed police. After an initial medical checkup the police handed over the baby to government childcare centre and launched an investigation.
The investigation led to the identification of the girl whose parents were asked to come to the school. The girl’s name was struck off from the school register and a police complaint was launched. Acting quickly, the school management put under suspension the duties of the principal, warden and the staff nurse for dire negligence.
Top officials of TMREIS told this writer that there is clear negligence on the part of the senior staff of the school. There is system of monthly health checkup of all students. How this girl skipped the checks? How did she hoodwink her parents? The more sensitive part of the episode is that the girl and the boy belong to two different religious groups.
Following this incident we decided to investigate whether this is the first of its kind incident or there have been such incidents in the past.
One of the parents said that it is almost impossible to have complete control over such incidents because the information on clandestine activities is hard to come by.
The 204 institutions have 1.25 lakh students registered with them. Almost half of the students are girls who have their own exclusive schools.
While a majority of institutes are following strictly the government laid down norms there are many who are hoodwinking officials and fudging records. This creates a grave situation which the senior officials are trying to tackle.
A Hyderabad district school management was able to catch a girl who had got pregnant during one of her home leaves and was trying to delude the staff.
It should be noted that at TMREIS sanitary pads are provided for the girls. The administration also keeps record of which girl had taken napkins on what dates. They also keep track of the napkin colleting dates of the students. In case of any delay by any student in collecting their material the staff intervenes and refers the girl to a doctor. The missing of date could be because of any reason like some vitamin deficiency or girl not taking proper diet.
The behavior fluctuation could lead the staff nurse to monitor the girl more closely. The nurse at this particular school noticed that the student was not collecting her quota regularly. She was also showing signs of fatigue and weakness during school hours. The nurse immediately informed about the girl to the headmistress. The girl was sent for a medical checkup where it was discovered that she was pregnant for a few months.
The girl was grilled and her statement recorded. It was discovered that she was impregnated when she was on home leave about six months ago. When the mother of the girl was told about the situation, she tried to blame the school authorities for lack of control over girls. She had no more to argue about with the management showing the statement of the girl where she had detailed the name of the boy and at what time she was leaving home almost every day with him for about a month.
Senior officials of TMRIES confess that it is the toughest task to keep a hawkish eye on the girls. “While we do our duty, we need the cooperation of parents. The parents should be in contact with their wards on a monthly basis. It will help resolve any problems in time,” they told Siasat.com
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