Act against teachers for forcing Dalit kids to clean toilet in Erode school, urge activists

Members of Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front on Monday submitted a petition to Erode Collector H Krishnanunni demanding action against teachers of a government school for allegedly forcing students to clean toilets.

In a petition, C Naveen Kumar, district secretary of the front said that a video of students cleaning the toilet of the government school in Perundurai has been circulated on social media.

“The children are seen telling them that whoever comes first to the school should clean the toilet. They also named two teachers, who asked them to do the cleaning work,” he said.

To probe the truth into the incident, the members of Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front inquired the children and their parents to find out that such practice has been going on for the last several months.

While some parents stopped their children from cleaning the toilets, others didn’t do so fearing backlash from the teachers. After the issue got exposed, some influential people in their locality had insisted the children and their parents, who were from Dalit community, not to open up about it.

“Therefore, the district administration should order a probe into the incident and taken necessary action against the two teachers for the discrimination,” the petitioner said.

Meanwhile, a probe is on by the officials of the education department to ascertain the truth. “The teachers told us that they never asked students to clean the toilet. But, they only asked them to keep the toilet clean. An inquiry is still underway,” said an official of the education department.