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Vishva-Bharati case: Girl shuns school

The 10-year-old student who was allegedly made to drink her own urine in West Bengal's Visva-Bharati campus as a punishment for bed-wetting says she does not want to continue in the same school.

‘I won't go back to the hostel. I want to study in another school. They may again ask me to do the same thing,’ said the Class 5 student of Patha Bhavan school.

She said her parents had agreed to her request.

‘It is so shameful for me to lick my own urine. Being a 10-year-old, when I do not believe in such superstitions, how the warden can have faith in such things?’ she said.

The Visva-Bharati university authorities have claimed that the warden, Uma Poddar, asked her to lick the urine since she believed the practice would cure her of bed-wetting.

The authorities, after receiving flak from all quarters on the issue, have requested the girl's parents to make her a day scholar.

‘We got a call from the university on Tuesday asking us to take back our daughter and continue her studies as a day scholar,’ said Poonam Mistri, the girl's mother.

Meanwhile, the police, after being rebuked by the court for going ‘soft’ on the warden, have lodged a case under section 23 of the Juvenile Justice Act which deals with cruelty to a child and has a maximum punishment of six months imprisonment or fine or both.

‘Following the court's order, we have brought in section 23 of the Juvenile Justice Act against Poddar,’ Superintendent of Police [Birbhum] Rishikesh Meena said. The incident has attracted severe criticism from all quarters and also reached the Prime Minister's Office [PMO].
 
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights [NCPCR] has sought detailed reports from the university and the state government.

West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan has also reportedly sought a report from the university.

According to the complaint filed by the parents, the incident occurred Saturday evening when Poddar, while on an inspection, pulled up the girl for bed-wetting.

She allegedly then sprinkled salt on the urine and made the girl lick her urine as a punishment.

After the girl told her mother about the ordeal, her parents and several other people stormed the hostel premises and allegedly manhandled Poddar.

Following the incident, the university set up a four-member fact-finding committee, headed by former dean of students welfare Aruna Mukherjee, to probe the matter.

Acting on the report, the university relieved Poddar of her duty as warden.
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