A 14-year-old student allegedly died by suicide after being taunted for being poor and caste by two teachers in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki. The victim was poor and from a lower caste and had questioned one of the teachers when she was given a fee receipt for an amount lower than she had actually paid. The girl was identified as a student of Azimuddin Ashraf Islamia Inter College in Barabanki district, as stated in a report by IANS.
Sharing their plight, the mother of the deceased said, “My husband died of a heart attack in 2018 and our family was then on the brink of starvation. With great difficulty, I managed to admit my daughters to the school in 2022.”
Actual incident
On May 27, the girl paid her school fees of Rs 1,100 but one of her teachers gave her a receipt for a lower amount. When she pointed this out and opposed it, the teacher allegedly told her that despite being poor and from a lower caste, she was behaving like she was equal to the upper castes.
Giving more details, police said that two teachers then made it a point to taunt the girl over her family's poverty and caste regularly in front of other students. Upset over the harassment, the girl hanged herself at her home on August 4. A suicide note written by her stated that she was taking the step because of the repeated taunts by the teachers. “I approached the police for four to five days but they did not register an FIR. They did so recently, only after we approached the superintendent of police," said her mother.
The school's principal, Jamshed Ahmed, denied the charges against the teachers and said, "The family had wanted to change the girls' surname to Khan in the school records but had not submitted the documents." The teachers allegedly claimed there was something wrong with her "character" and that was the reason behind her taking the step.
Further, a senior police official said, "An FIR has been registered against the teachers for harassment and abetment of suicide based on the mother's complaint. We are investigating the case." The incident came to light days after a teacher in Muzaffarnagar had asked students to take turns slapping one of their classmates, as stated in a report by IANS.
