Tamil Nadu: School headmistress suspended for administrative lapses after Dalit girl’s death

MADURAI: The District Education Department has suspended the headmistress of the Government Model Higher Secondary School in Usilampatti for administrative inefficiency in connection with the death by suicide of a Dalit girl.

According to the Education Department's inquiry, the headmistress, Vimala Devi, had neither discriminated against the girl nor her mother based on caste. However, the inquiry found that she did not handle the situation with the required administrative sensitivity and efficiency.

The officials also clarified that the headmistress had neither forced the mother and daughter to stand nor asked the mother to fold her hands. The officials added that there was no CCTV camera in the headmistress’s room, but their questioning of the headmistress and teachers at the school did not corroborate the allegation that she had scolded the girl.

“She could have asked the mother and the girl to sit down and then followed the prescribed administrative procedure. She should also have avoided making a phone call to enquire about the girl’s background in her presence,” an Education Department official said.

The official said the circumstances surrounding the girl’s death might involve several factors and that it would not be appropriate to attribute it to a single incident. “But the fact remains that we have lost a life,” the official said, adding that the police investigation will shed more light on the incident.

“The suspension came after the Usilampatti police invoked provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the headmistress following a complaint by the deceased girl’s mother, P. Thavamani, who alleged that the headmistress had humiliated her daughter, P. Nishanthi, when they approached the school seeking admission to Class XI.

Police initially registered the case as a suspicious death under Section 174 of the CrPC. However, after Thavamani filed a fresh complaint on August 28, the case was altered to include provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

According to the complaint, when they approached the headmistress for admission on August 24, the headmistress allegedly became angry and asked the girl to leave the school when she allegedly told the mother not to fold her hands in front of the headmistress while seeking admission.

In the complaint, Thavamani also alleged that the headmistress questioned the girl’s conduct for attempting to join this school despite having already been admitted to the Government Kallar Higher Secondary School. The headmistress then allegedly made a phone call to her counterpart and enquired about the girl’s conduct over the phone on speaker mode. According to the deceased girl’s mother, this upset Nishanthi.

The girl left the school crying and was in distress after she returned home. The following day, they went to the school where the girl had completed Class X and collected her Transfer Certificate. The girl died by suicide later that evening.

Nishanthi had secured 415 marks in Class X and had joined the Biology-Mathematics stream hoping to become a nurse. However, she found it difficult and asked her teachers to allow her to shift to the Commerce stream, but her request was not accepted. Since then, she hasn't shown interest in going to school, said the police source.