Girl students in Madhya Pradesh forced to undress by teacher, over 'theft' of Rs 70

The teacher, however, denied the allegations.

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Two girl students were allegedly forced to undress in a school in Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh by a teacher who wanted to conduct a check of their persons after a student complained her Rs 70 was stolen, an official said on Saturday.

District Education Officer (DEO) Ajab Singh Thakur told IANS: "A Class 10 student of Rani Durgawati Government Girls Higher Secondary School said her Rs 70 had been stolen. Acting on the complaint, teacher Jyoti Gupta checked students' bags, but nothing was found."

According to the victim students, the teacher asked them to remove their dress including the lower clothing in the name of checking. She also threatened to take recourse to sorcery if the money was not found, they alleged.

"My classmate lost her money. Teacher checked my bag and threatened me to admit the theft. When I refused, she made me and my friend to strip," ANI quoted the girl as saying.

The teacher, however, denied the allegations.

DEO Thakur said he came to know of the incident late on Friday evening.

"Once versions of both sides are on record, two woman principals would be assigned to look into the incident. If the complaints are found to be true, appropriate action would be taken (against the teacher)," the officer said.

This also comes after reports surfaced last week, that roughly 50% of all teachers in Madhya Pradesh — nearly 2 lakh of them — are untrained.

The Times of India accessed data from the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) till September 30, 2017, which showed that 191,510 teachers from Madhya Pradesh had made use of a ‘one-time window‘ to register for diploma in elementary education (D.El.Ed).

"Although the number of untrained teachers is very high, since the course in only for in-service teachers, many who have been working for a long time as government teachers have applied for the course. It could be difficult for them to pass the examination," ToI quoted official sources as saying.

IANS inputs