A primary school headmistress in Erode district of Tamil Nadu was arrested on Saturday, December 3 for allegedly making six Scheduled Caste (SC) students clean the school toilets.

Geetha Rani, the headmistress of Palakkarai Panchayat Union Primary School, was arrested from Perundurai in the district, as stated in a report by IANS.

The issue had come to light recently when some of the students' parents noticed blisters on their wards' hands and enquired about it. One of the children, who was admitted to the hospital for dengue treatment, had told his mother that a few students were being made to regularly clean the school toilets with bleaching powder, reported IANS. 

The school has one toilet for students and another for the teachers. Thereafter, the boy's mother approached the police which registered a case against Geetha Rani and launched a search to trace her. Meanwhile, the District Education Authorities also conducted an inquiry into the issue and found the allegations to be true. The headmistress was suspended on November 30.