Delhi: 4-year-old ‘sexually assaulted’ by classmate; mother says hold the school responsible, my girl was left unattended

On Thursday, the mother demanded that the school be booked under Section 26 of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act. A case has already been registered under sections of rape and the POCSO Act against the boy.

“Prima facie, I hold the school responsible for the assault on my daughter. Teacher missing from class, ayah (help) looking after children. How could it happen? Do we pay Rs 1.5 lakh per annum for an ayah to take care of children? If the school is short of resources, it should shut,” the mother told The Indian Express.

Asked if she would change her daughter’s school, she said, “Fearing her safety, I think that is the best measure to take. I am on the lookout for one. But no school will take her in November… I want no one to go to the school ever, friend or enemy alike.”

The mother claimed the CCTV footage corroborates what her daughter said — that the classroom was left under the care of an ayah, and that the girl was the last one to walk out of the room. “The school needs to be booked under POCSO Act for negligence in letting something like this happen in its classrooms, due to its teachers’ irresponsible behaviour,” the mother said.

However, the school’s legal advisor claimed that prima facie, nothing had been found to suggest that such an event took place. “The girl child was seen coming out happily from the bathroom on November 17. The boy was not intruding into the separate bathroom meant for girls. All the footage is available… Two teachers are constantly available in classrooms,” he claimed.

But her mother claimed, “I have watched her actions in the CCTV footage. She looks visibly upset…. in a fix too as if wondering how to deal with it.” She added that her daughter had repeated the same version of the incident to her parents, police as well as the magistrate.

The mother said the alleged sexual assault happened “once or twice” — in the bathroom as well as the classroom — when the boy opened the girl’s pants, touched her bloomers and put a finger inside. The mother alleged that the daughter told her the boy had also put a sharpened pencil inside her private parts.

“The boy had just finished eating his food, he had not washed his hands and then touched her private parts. In the washroom, there was no didi who could help her; in the classroom, ma’am was not around… She came home writhing in pain in her private parts and somehow bore it…,” the mother said. She alleged that once her daughter told her what had happened, she took her to a hospital, which confirmed it was a case of sexual assault.

The mother also alleged that initially, calls to the principal “went unanswered”, and that even after knowing about what had happened, she “appeared casual about the entire incident as if I was reporting a loss of my child’s belonging or talking of any physical injury”.