Madhya Pradesh: Girls stripped to identify menstruating girl

Sagar (MP): In an appalling incident, inmates of a college hostel here were allegedly strip-searched on the direction of the warden after a sanitary napkin was found discarded carelessly near the toilet. The incident, which has sparked protests by students, occurred on Sunday at the hostel of the Dr Hari Singh Gour’s Central University when the warden, Professor Chanda Ben, was undertaking an inspection, the hostel inmates said.

They said that the warden, angry at the napkin not being properly disposed of, asked the hostel's women staff to check the private parts of students to find if they were menstruating after no one owned up. Over 40 of them staged a protest in front of the Vice-Chancellor’s residence, situated within the campus, demanding action against the warden. VC Professor R.P. Tiwari said, “Nearly 40 students came to my residence to complain about the incident. They are like my daughters and I apologised to them. It is very shameful, condemnable and highly painful.” He said that he had constituted a three-member committee to probe the incident and it would submit its report in three days.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, student wing of the RSS, and other unions staged a protest on Monday with ABVP leader Jyotish Pandey asking authorities to keep the warden away from work till the probe was completed. The leader of Congress’ student wing National Students Union of India (NSUI), Rahul Khare, submitted a memorandum to the university administration demanding that retired judges and other eminent persons be appointed to the probe committee instead of university teachers. In order to raise awareness among teachers, they also distributed sanitary napkins to them.