Gurugram school upgraded after sit-in by girl students

The Haryana government on Friday announced upgradation of a government high school to Class 12 in a village of this district, after girl students staged a sit-in at the school's gate.

Of the 170 students in the Kadarpur High School, 160 are girls, who after finishing their secondary level Class 10 studies, had to go to a school in Badshahpur village for their higher secondary Class 12 education.

The girls said they were being sexually harassed on the five-km way to school and that they face molestation and eve teasing even in the shared auto-rickshaws.

Hundreds of students, including the Class 10 girls, of Kadarpur village on Friday locked the main gate of the school and staged a sit-in, demanding upgradation of their school.

Teachers and other staff remained inside school premises for hours until senior officials arrived at the spot and assured protesters, including some elderly women parants, that their demands will be fulfilled soon. But the students refused to end the protest merely on an assurance.

Later in the day, Bharatiya Janata Party legislator from Sohna Tejpal Tanwar reached theschool and informed the protesers that the government has approved of their demand.

"Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma informed me that school will be upgraded to Class 12 and an official notification will be issued in a day or two," Tanwar told the protesters, after which they called off their sit-in.

Kadarpur, home to over 12,000 people, has been demanding school upgradation for the last three years as the school fulfils all the norms to be upgraded. The Kadarpur High School recently received best Greenery Award in the state after a survey conducted by state government.

On May 17, a government school in South Haryana's Gothra Tappa Dahina village in Rewari district was upgraded to Class 12 by the Haryana government, after a week-long hunger strike by girls in the village.

The girls in Gothra Tappa Dahina village also alleged that they were being sexually harassed by passer-bys and hooligans on their way to the school in another village three km away.

--IANS

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