The 16-year-old Dalit teen's torture was filmed and posted on social media last week
After a Dalit teen described the brutality with which he was assaulted by classmates and the unwillingness of his teachers to intervene, the central government has punished top members of the school's staff.
The principal of the government-run school has been suspended today; 14 other staffers have been transferred from the institute in Muzaffarpur in Bihar. The teen has also been told that he will be accommodated in any Kendriya Vidyalaya or central government-run school he chooses, according to Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP.
The 16-year-old's torture by two brothers who attend his school was filmed and posted on social media last week. The attackers, who had disappeared after the video went viral, have been detained by the police and suspended from school. The government had sent a team of education and other officials to investigate the abuse.
In a
blog written for ndtv.com, the teen who was abused wrote, "You see, I am a Dalit and so doing well in the examinations or academics, which brings me praise at home, earns me humiliation and abuse in my classroom."
The video shows him being dragged out of his chair in his classroom; he is slapped on the face, hit on the head and kicked. "The video that has now resulted in a police case was, I think, filmed on August 25. One of the boys used to tell me that assaulting me gave him pleasure, so he had it filmed by a student," he wrote.
He says that while his teacher, who he confided in, was sympathetic warned him against filing a complaint, saying "the boys' father is a powerful criminal, so the school could not take action against them, and if I filed a complaint, I would be forced to drop out."