The students were threatened with failure in exams if they did not comply
Two teachers of a government-run school in Hisar district of Haryana were arrested Tuesday for sexually harassing female students. A third is absconding. The incident came to light after 40 students - from classes 5 to 10 - admitted the assault to a child protection officer conducting a workshop on sensitising students about improper contact.
"Students inside a government school have been harassed by their teachers. We have statements of 40 children who say the teachers threatened them with failure in exams if they did not comply with demands," Sunita Yadav, the child protection officer, said, adding that more students could come forward soon.
Some of the assaults reportedly occurred inside a laboratory on school premises and others at places inside the compound; none of these places have CCTV coverage.
A first information report (FIR) filed with local police states: "...(teachers) used to threaten and sexually harass them and even gave corporal punishment to children and used to insist they come early in the morning before school time and go (home) late and threaten to fail them".
The FIR also states that only a quarter of the "big campus area" is covered by CCTV cameras; this excludes key areas like entry and exit gates and laboratory areas.
This alleged sexual harassment of minor girls comes only days after six Class 4 students, including two girls, from another school in the same district were allegedly paraded around school premises with blackened faces for performing poorly in a test.
The incident sparked protests by locals in Hisar.
Last week the principal of that school and three of its teachers were arrested and charged under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The case had been registered on a complaint lodged by the parents of a 9-year-old Dalit girl.