Telangana officer's remarks on involving students in cleaning toilets spark row

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

A controversy has erupted in Telangana over the alleged remarks of a senior official of Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TGSWREIS) regarding students' involvement in cleaning activities. The opposition BRS has demanded the official's removal, while the National Commission for Scheduled Castes sought details on the matter.
The commission on May 31 issued notices to the Telangana Chief Secretary and Director General of Police, seeking a report within 15 days concerning the alleged derogatory remarks made by the IAS officer against SC students in the institutions.
However, TGSWREIS Secretary V S Alagu Varsini clarified that 'this is about life skills, not labour.'
A purported audio clip of the officer 'instructing' principals at a recent review meeting to involve students in cleaning toilets, hostel rooms, as well as cooking meals has gone viral, drawing sharp criticism from the BRS.
BRS MLC K Kavitha has said that each social welfare school had received ₹40,000 per month during her party's regime for hiring four temporary workers for cleaning tasks.
"This has been stopped by the Congress government starting May this year," she said.
In a recent post on 'X', Kavitha said, "The government has also done away with having assistant caretakers in the 240 schools, forcing the students to take up the role of wardens and manage kitchens. Now the officer is Forcing children to clean toilets in schools !!"
The BRS leader called the behaviour "discriminatory, exploitative" and said it "violates basic principles of child rights and dignity".
"It only Reflects Revanth Reddy government's anti poor, anti Dalit attitude !! I demand the government to immediately take steps to remove the officer and start giving the required funds to run the social welfare schools properly," Kavitha said.
The IAS officer, however, refuted the allegations and said they were just an activity to "tarnish" the government.
She emphasised that all the sanitation staff remain employed.
"Leaders like Gandhi and Ambedkar emphasized personal hygiene and dignity of work. Our students call me 'Amma.' I treat them as my own children. Asking them to be responsible for their surroundings is about nurturing future-ready citizens, not exploiting them,' Varsini said.
The official also denounced the selective editing of her two-hour speech into "misleading" four-minute audio clips now circulating on social media.
In her clarification, the official expressed pain at being reduced to a caste tag in political narratives.
'I come from a BC farming family. I have climbed each step through sheer perseverance. It's heartbreaking when caste becomes a tool to diminish merit,' she said.
She added that while majority of the residential students are from the scheduled castes, BCs, STs, and minority students are equally part of the system. 'I treat them all with the same care. Don't colour our children with your political brush,' a release quoted her as saying.