School girls beaten up for protesting eve-teasing in Bihar’s Supaul

FIR lodged, but no one arrested yet; Bihar Education Minister takes stock.

A file photo of a protest against eve-teasing.

Over 30 girls of a government school in Bihar were beaten up brutally by a group of villagers for resisting harassment by some boys.

Some of the girls have been admitted to the primary health centre for treatment.

‘Beaten with sticks’

The students of the Kasturba Gandhi Residential School in Daparkha village in Supaul district, some 250 km from Patna, were beaten up by a group of people from the neighboring village when they protested after they were teased.

The incident happened on Saturday evening when the girls were playing at the school ground. Some local boys from the next village had allegedly been harassing the girls regularly by passing lewd comments and writing obscene words on the boundary wall of the school. The girls had complained about it to the school administration.

Police said on Saturday some girls had caught some boys trying to write a vulgar comment on the school wall and scolded them. But, after some time a group of about two dozen people, including parents of some of the boys, attacked the girls playing in the school ground and some staff members.

“The girls were kicked and beaten up with sticks”, said Ms. Reema Raj, warden of the school. Many girls sustained injuries, and 12 of them had to be admitted to the PHC.

An FIR was later lodged in the case but no one has been arrested yet.

“Action will be taken against all those found involved in the attack on the girls,” said Baidyanath Yadav, District Magistrate of Supaul.

Meanwhile, the local Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan visited the PHC. Education Minister Krishnanadan Prasad Verma said in Patna “no one will be spared.”