Woman asked to remove toe ring at exam hall, writes to Maneka

In a letter to Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, Delhi resident Rita Verma said she was made to remove her toe ring, worn by married women, bangles and even her 'bindi' before she could appear for the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board examination here on June 25. "Officers there asked me to break my bangles if required if I wanted to enter the school premises," she wrote.

She was forced to keep all her 'suhaag' (marital) items outside the school where the examination was being held, she wrote in her June 27 letter.

Gandhi, outraged at what she said was a "bizarre case", has now shot off a letter to Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, asking him to draw up "standard operating procedures" to deal with such cases.

"Before the school board exams were conducted this year, apparently very strict instructions were issued regarding prevention of cheating during the exams. A large number of students were put to harassment which included body search and stripping in certain incidents," Gandhi said in her letter, also dated June 27.

Though she agreed that some students used high-tech gadgets to cheat, "the anti-cheating protocols deployed should not result in harassment", Gandhi contended.

In May this year, a woman who had appeared for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for admission to medical courses was asked to remove her bra by the frisking staff at an examination centre in Kovappuram in Kerala before being allowed to sit for the test. In another case in March, officials allegedly strip- searched women students appearing for a matriculation examination at a school in Patna.

Maneka went on to recount Verma's woes in her letter to the HRD minister, saying that the candidate found her jewellery missing after the exam. School authorities said metallic objects were not allowed inside the examination hall, which was why the candidate was asked to remove her jewellery.