Scheduled Caste panel issues notice after Telangana IAS officer asks students to clean toilets
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Sunday issued notices to Telangana's chief secretary and the director general of police after an Indian Administrative Service officer allegedly directed students at welfare schools to clean toilets, The Indian Express reported.
The commission sought an action-taken report within 15 days.
This came days after an alleged audio clip of S Alagu Varshini, secretary of the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society, directing school principals to incorporate cleaning duties into the students' routine at welfare hostels and classrooms was widely shared online.
The Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society, which reports to the state welfare ministry, provides education to students from Scheduled Caste communities.
Varshini was heard saying in the purported audio that the students in institutes operated by the welfare society come from extremely poor backgrounds and had to learn how to take care of themselves even while at home, The Indian Express reported.
She made the alleged comment while speaking to the staff at one of the schools run by the welfare society, The Times of India reported.
'They must do the room cleaning,' The Times of India quoted the IAS officer as having allegedly said in the audio clip. 'Who will clean their rooms? If a sweeper can do it once, why can't the students do it on other occasions? Similarly, why can't they clean their own toilets? What is wrong with it?'
Varshini also claimed that parents who objected to the direction would be issued a show cause notice.
After the IAS officer's remarks came to light, RS Praveen Kumar, Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader and former secretary of the society, demanded Varshini's resignation, The Indian Express reported.
'This 'wholistic education' experiment must start from the so-called 'posh society' and their kids in their cozy homes and international schools first, not from poor kids,' he said on social media. 'Children from oppressed communities/families have been left with no choice but help themselves everyday, from cradle to grave, as none in the rest of society had the empathy to share their burden.'
The BRS leader asked Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and the secretaries in the state government to keep their children in welfare hostels for a month and 'do this self help first'.
'It is very easy to sermonise to the poor, because they don't ask questions in return as they have no choice,' Kumar added.
BRS MLC K Kavitha, who also shared the purported audio clip online, said that the Congress government's 'anti-poor attitude' was reflected in the 'shocking behaviour' by the IAS officer.
'Each social welfare school was granted Rs 40,000 per month during the BRS rule for hiring four temporary workers for cleaning tasks,' Kavitha said on social media. 'This has been stopped by the Congress government starting May this year.'
She claimed that the state government had 'also done away with having assistant caretakers in the 240 schools, forcing the students to take up the role of wardens and manage kitchens'.
Kavitha added: 'Now the officer is forcing children to clean toilets in schools! The statement goes against the very concept of establishing Gurukuls to protect students from marginalised communities from caste and class bias. This behaviour is discriminatory, exploitative, and violates basic principles of child rights and dignity.'
She also demanded that the state government takes steps to remove the IAS officer.
In another audio clip shared by Varshini with the media, she appealed not to politicise the matter and take her words out of context, according to The Indian Express.
She also claimed that the allegations that there was no sanitation staff in the schools was baseless, adding that children helping parents at home was a 'normal day-to-day activity' and helped them grow as an 'aware individual'.
'If you go abroad or go to another state, you have to do your own day-to-day work,' The Indian Express quoted her as having said. 'Cleaning the rooms, washing the bathrooms, and washing clothes need to be done by oneself while also focusing on studies. The sudden transformation usually takes time for children. These are certain muscle memories.'
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