11-07-2025
Girls strip searched in Thane schools to check periods. This is not the way you teach them hygiene
A shocking incident has been reported at a school in Thane, Maharashtra, where girls spoke up about being strip-searched by some members of the staff to ascertain if they were menstruating when blood stains were found in a toilet. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated instance. Similar instances have been reported in the not-so-distant past from elsewhere in the country as well. These deplorable incidents are instructive about how gender-based violence (GBV) is deployed in multiple forms within and by various institutions. It is shameful that schools, which should ideally be safe spaces and a refuge from inequalities that young girls otherwise experience in their lives, turn out to be sites of severely traumatic experiences.
Thankfully, parents of the aggrieved girls were steadfast in protest, believing their daughters over the denial of the school administration. It is heartening to witness that these girls did not remain silent, evidently drew strength from each other and went on to confide in their parents, who, in turn, supported them and rightly demanded accountability from the school. It shows that normalising public discussions about GBV and mass mobilisations such as the one that followed the recent RG Kar Medical College case, for example, have a positive ripple effect in the condemnation, reportage and redressal of instances of GBV. One hopes that the law enforcement agencies will take swift and commensurate action against the accused in this case.
While it is difficult to set anger aside, if one were to attempt to view this incident from the perspective of the school administration, it may be argued that it is important to teach children about cleanliness and hygiene. However, that is a lesson to be taught using reason and compassion, trusting them as responsible agents and extending care as they navigate puberty and adolescence. There are ample policy guidelines available for educational institutions to undertake this exercise. Apart from guidelines by international bodies such as UNICEF and the WHO, on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Education, Government of India, issued revised 'SOP for Sustaining Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools (WASH) – Including Guidelines for Swachhata Action Plan under Samagra Shiksha' in 2021. Section 2.3 directs schools towards 'institutionalising a system for student's safety, hygiene and health', including sensitisation and training of teachers and support staff. Section 3.5 lays down directives for 'menstrual hygiene management' with a focus on knowledge that dispels notions of menstrual blood as 'dirty, unhygienic or unclean'. Most importantly, it clearly states the need for the educational institutions to educate and enable girls 'to privately manage menstruation hygienically and with dignity'. The Thane incident is in gross violation of these tenets.
It is also shocking that the accused school administrators used photographs of toilets deemed 'unclean' due to menstrual blood and projected them in a hall where the young girls were herded in — making a mockery of technological tools that should serve education, not intimidation. The importance of dignity in this context cannot be overstated. Segregating adolescent girls, shaming them through a strip search, and seeking to punish them through public humiliation — including reportedly taking fingerprints of menstruating students to match with a blood-stained print on a toilet wall — are not just invasive, but deeply dehumanising. These actions reflect a gross abuse of authority and serve to entrench gender-based hierarchies. At a time when there are multi-pronged ways in which taboos around menstruation and the shame associated with it are being challenged and rightful claims to accommodate menstruation-related concerns in educational and occupational spaces are gathering steam, incidents like this serve as a reminder of the long road ahead.
It hasn't been long since one of the survivors of gruesome sexual violence, the Frenchwoman Gisèle Pelicot, made the moving call that 'shame must change sides'. However, structural issues around GBV are so entrenched that time and again, patriarchal mindset and regressive norms put the burden of shame on women and girls. GBV is experienced in myriad forms – from physical violence to discrimination to everyday microaggressions. What remains at the heart of it, however, is the intention of putting someone in 'their place' within patriarchy and at the intersection of other social hierarchies such as race, caste, religion, etc. India's daughters deserve better. The Constitution guarantees them fundamental rights against discrimination, of equality, of education and a life of dignity. The celebrations of a Viksit Bharat in 2047 would be vacuous if the bare minimum of safety and dignity within educational institutions remains elusive for women.
The writer is an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad. Views are personal
