00:00Jai Beem, welcome to Bebhaag Basha. I am Deepti Sukumar for Dalit Lavi's Matter.
00:08The last time when I was here with Bebhaag Basha, I had narrated an incident that happened in Pollachi of Coimbatore district in Tamil Nadu
00:18of a minor Arundhadiar girl who faced very brutal untouchability the day she got her first period.
00:26And following that narration which I did on Bebhaag Basha, I visited her and her family in Senghuta Palayam in Pollachi in Coimbatore
00:37and also went to the school and saw what kind of a school it was.
00:42The school is called Swami Chitpavananda Metric Higher Secondary School.
00:48It's a small rural village in Senghuta Palayam and as I entered the village,
00:53you first come to the school, there is a main road and then we saw the school first.
00:58It's a very big school, a very well established school with good infrastructure.
01:03And after that outside the school it was dark, it was around 7.30 in the night, it was already dark.
01:09And we heard the district superintendent of police was inside the school inquiring with the school authorities
01:15about the incident on that day.
01:18It was the 12th of April, the incident had happened on the 7th and the 9th of April.
01:21And after that, the family was outside the school.
01:26The minor girl's father, her uncle and a team of advocates who belonged to a society called the Arundhadiya Advocate Forum.
01:35They were outside the school and they were discussing the incident.
01:38In fact, they were waiting to meet the DSP when she came out.
01:42And then suddenly there was a kind of an activity, the DSP came out and then just left without meeting the girl's father and the team of advocates there.
01:53But then the father later on, he told us that the DSP had already come to their house the previous evening
02:00and met the girl and talked to her and taken her statement from her.
02:05After that, we went to the minor girl's house.
02:11And we could see as we walked to her house, we first walked through the caste village which is called Ur.
02:17After that, we walked through the Pariyar segment of the village.
02:25And then as we walked through the Pariyar and you could also see the way the infrastructure and the houses changed from one section to the other.
02:34So in this site, it was all good big two-storied houses and well-built houses with some land around the houses.
02:41And after that, as we walked through the Pariyar section, the houses became smaller with sloping roofs and very kind of, you know, very small crowded kind of houses.
02:51After that, we went into the Arundadhyar section of that Sanguta Palyam village.
02:58And it was a really very, very backward economic condition that was very visible, very dim lighting, hardly any street lights.
03:08And the houses were very small, low doorways and the people were sleeping outside the houses.
03:15And then we went into this girl's house.
03:17The mother's name is Sandhya.
03:19We met Sandhya and Sandhya narrated to us what happened.
03:24And she said very clearly that on the 5th of April, this girl, she had the, it was the first day of her first period.
03:32And she did not go to school because she did not have an exam that day.
03:36And in this community, the first day of the first period, it's a kind of a very, very, you know, occasion that is very, you know, special in a different kind of a way where the girl becomes very protected.
03:48They don't send her out.
03:50They keep her inside, give her special food and make sure that she doesn't come across any risk or any fear.
03:56But because she had her exams and even though it was a first menstrual period, the mother said she must go and write her exam.
04:05You know, that was one step of a kind of breaking the system of that, that patriarchal culture and that superstitious culture where you have so much of stigma and restrictions around the first menstrual period of any girl.
04:20This child was sent to the school to write her exam.
04:24It was a social census exam on the 7th of April.
04:27She went into the school and the mother had called earlier to the teacher to inform the teacher that my daughter is having her first period.
04:35She's a little bit weak and I'm worried that she may have some kind of a trauma because it's the first period.
04:41So, please take care of her and whenever she goes to the toilet, let her not go alone because the toilets were in a part of the school that was kind of, you know, a lonely and secluded.
04:52So, she said, please accompany the girl to that toilet whenever she goes.
04:57So, this is how the school came to know that this minor girl had her first menstrual period.
05:04And so, when she went into the school, so the teacher said, okay, we'll make her sit separately and we'll take care of her.
05:10But when the girl went into the school, the school principal and the school manager or they say they tarwala, but then he came, he is a male.
05:21So, they came and said, no, she has to sit outside on the steps where the children kept their footwear before going into the school.
05:29So, she sat among the footwear outside on the steps and wrote that social science exam.
05:34For two hours, she sat on a low step with her feet bent up, which gave her a cramp and a pain in her calves and in her thighs.
05:44When she went home, she had severe leg pain.
05:47When her mother asked her what had happened, this is what she narrated.
05:50So, on the 9th, she again called the teacher and said, you don't make my daughter sit on the steps outside, but please make her sit inside separately if you so wish it.
06:01Because her teacher said, no, no, this girl, she may give the infection to the other children.
06:07This was a menstrual period.
06:09So, I don't understand what the infection or the germs.
06:12I think what was running through the minds of those people was that pollution, the pollution at the time of menstruation of any woman.
06:21So, they said, we'll make her sit separately.
06:24So, at that time, I asked the mother, but then there are about 300 girls, children in that school.
06:29There are about 50 teachers, women teachers in the school.
06:33How does the school system know which of these females are having their period that day to make them sit separately or whatever?
06:40But then because they knew this girl, and then the mother said something very interesting.
06:44This is the first time that this is happening.
06:48And I also feel very much, the mother said to me, I also feel very much, because we are Arundha the earth, it is making us doubly polluting.
06:56They feel that we are doubly polluting and we are infectious.
07:01So, they use the word infection.
07:03So, the girl went again into the school.
07:06She was again made to sit outside where the footwear was placed.
07:09And as she wrote the exam, someone informed the mother that she was sitting outside and writing.
07:14So, the mother went and took a complete video of the girl sitting outside and went and confronted the teacher, the principal, and the school manager.
07:25And they said, no, when she has a first menstrual period, it is not good for the child to be along with other children.
07:32The other children will get infection and she has to be placed outside.
07:35So, then she fought and immediately they have gone and filed an FIR under the Untouchability Prohibition Act and also under the SCSD Atrocities Act against the school authorities on the very same day.
07:49And then the whole thing happened where the video became viral on social media and the media came to know about it and this advocate forum came to know about it and they took up the battle and they came to the aid of the mother.
08:05But in the meantime, the school, the principal and the school manager went absconding.
08:13And till today, an arrest has not been made.
08:16A FIR has been filed but the arrest has not been mailed.
08:20And the parents and the family feels that they are trying to get bail.
08:25So, I told them the SCSD Atrocities Act, it is a non-bailable offence.
08:30They cannot get bail until they appear before the magistrate.
08:33Only then they can apply for the bail.
08:35Only after they are arrested can they get the bail.
08:38So, this is the situation now.
08:39They are very worried that they will be intimidated.
08:42There are already threats and they feel very intimidated and that is why they ask for police protection.
08:47But till today in Coimbatore district with such a strong police force and such a strong system, there is no protection for that minor Arundir girl child.
08:59And I must say that the mother of the child, both the mother and the father, they are very empowered and they know exactly what to do in the SCSD Atrocities Act.
09:10And in spite of all the knowledge and the empowerment, they are still being made run from pillar to post for justice.
09:17But what the mother told me was very interesting.
09:20She said, and also very powerful, she said just the very fact that the school authorities, the so-called upper caste, are absconding and still hiding is enough punishment for them.
09:34That they are, that they have been put to shame so much that they have to go into hiding.
09:39I think there is a very powerful statement made by the mother.
09:42And then we spoke to them about our feminist platform for menstrual justice of the Safai Karmachari Andolan.
09:50And she immediately wanted to join us.
09:53And today, the poster of the feminist platform is hanging in her house.
09:58And she is handing out and distributing the Delhi Declaration on Menstrual Justice to all those who have come to our house inquiring about the girl.
10:08And the family on this issue of both menstrual untouchability and caste untouchability that has happened to them.
10:16The latest update on the Coimbatore incident of the minor Arundhadiar girl, when she was made to sit outside the classroom to write her exam,
10:24is that the people, the accused who were absconding, the school principal and the school manager and the correspondent,
10:34all three of them surrendered in front of the Coimbatore magistrate on the 19th.
10:41And a hearing was held for them on the 19th, in which they have made an appeal, the accused has made an appeal that they have done it on the wishes of the parents.
10:53The parents have actually appealed to the school to first postpone the exam for the girl or to make her sit separately,
11:03since she has this period for the first time and she may have faced some problems.
11:09But the parents, of course, the mother has said that she only said that to take care of the girl
11:14and yes, to make her sit separately, but inside the classroom and not outside the classroom.
11:20But the school authorities have made her to sit outside the classroom.
11:24And in that, in all this thing, the bail application, they have been granted conditional bail
11:30on the grounds that one person, the principal is a widow and she is also a principal
11:38and an authority in education, an educational institution.
11:41And therefore, she will not go absconding anywhere and therefore, she was granted the bail.
11:47The second person is a mother of two daughters and therefore, the judge has granted her also conditional bail.
11:53The third person, the correspondent, is an 80-year-old senior citizen, male.
12:00And because he has also some health issues, age-related issues, health issues,
12:06he has also been granted conditional bail.
12:07So, this is the update and this is the status of the case.
12:12But in whatever it seems like, the entire system seems to be supporting the perpetrators
12:19rather than protecting the justice and the rights of the victims
12:25and especially the minor Arundhavir girl
12:28because the judgment is also clearly leaning towards the perpetrators and the accused in this case,
12:35which is very sad.
12:37And also, there is a lot of kind of, if you read between the lines of what the judgment is saying,
12:45it gives a very scary picture because as of today, till today,
12:50the victims have not been given any kind of protection
12:55when these three powerful persons, dominant caste persons are out on conditional bail
13:01and the entire system, whether it is the police and the entire system
13:06seem to be more on the side of the perpetrators than on the accused.
13:11This is my personal observation from all the documents that I have gone through in this case.
13:17This is my personal observation from all the people who are in this case.
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