When a biology class turned into a lecture on ‘how to avoid being another Nirbhaya’

A biology teacher of KV Raipur told her students that Nirbhaya's rapist did the right thing by punishing her for going out with a man she was not married to

By: Somi Das |
January 30, 2018 6:03 pm

A biology teacher’s job is to acquaint his/her students with the human body, its organs and their functions. They also have the added responsibility of explaining complex issues of hormonal changes in male and female body, puberty and reproduction. One would expect them to do a good job of it without making the students feel awkward or bad about themselves.

The problem arises when a Biology teacher takes it upon herself to also give moral lessons and spells out the dos and donts for her female students. In a shocking incident of moral policing and victim shaming, a Biology teacher in Raipur Kendriya Vidyalaya told her female students that Nirbhaya was raped because she wore lipstick and jeans and that she went out with a man she was not married to. She said that she deserved to have an iron rod inserted inside her private part as a punishment for venturing out of her house late in the night.

These comments were apparently made during a counselling session, in the presence of male students. This made the students very uncomfortable. Girls of Class ix and xi recorded the counselling session.

Here’s the transcript of the audio

Girls expose their body only when they don’t have beautiful faces. She was so shameless that she was out with a man she was not married to at night. That’s why Nirbhaya’s rapists inserted a rod inside her private parts. They punished her. In a way, they did the right thing. And such a big deal was made out of it. These kind of incidents keep happening in villages. And her mother keeps saying that they didn’t get justice. They should be hanged but she couldn’t control her daughter. These kind of incidents happen to people who are cursed.

Parents of these girls met principal Bhagwan Das Ahire and filed a complaint against teacher Snehlata Shankhwar. They have also submitted the recording as proof.

Reportedly, Shankhwar is a habitual offender and often shames women for wearing “skimpy clothes”. In fact, the students had written an anonymous letter to the Principal detailing the outlandish things that Shankhwar says in class. But he dismissed it as a prank.

This incident, again, brings forth the dire need for better sex education in our school.