Five teachers of the Sarisha Ramakrishna Mission Sarada Mandir in South 24 Parganas, who defied the diktat of wearing only white sarees at school, did not turn up on Friday. The teachers, who earlier faced a massive protest by locals, are worried over their security.“We are not in a mental state to attend the school. On Thursday, we were gheraoed in the school for hours and we could reach home only with the help of the district administration and the police,” said a teacher. On Thursday, when they attended the school in coloured sarees, a huge mob had gathered outside the school, allegedly heckled them and pelted stones at the classrooms, forcing the school administration to call the police. Sub Divisional Police Officer of Diamond Harbour Kunal Agrawal told The Indian Express that police were deployed to tackle situation and the teachers were escorted back under police protection. The school authorities claimed that the mob comprised angry parents of the students. “Belur Math, the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, has asked us to allow teachers to come in coloured sareers. Many parents, however, protested against them,” said Swami Rajibananda Maharaj, the secretary of the school management committee. The teachers are, however, determined to defy the dress code and alleged that parents were not among the protestors. Five teachers — Jhumpa Dutta (48), Munmum Chakraborty (40), Nivedita Roy (35), Monideepa Sahu (30) and Joyashree Mitra Mukhopadhyay (29) — were not allowed to sign the school register on December 8 when they went in coloured sarees.
