In an unsettling incident at a government girls’ residential school in Latehar, Jharkhand, the warden named Elizabeth Kumud Toppo ordered the girls to perform 200 sit-ups as punishment for skipping physical training (PT) also known as games class on Thursday, and as a result, up to 170 of them became sick.
After completing the rigorous exercise, many of the girls passed out, and the majority of them complained of severe leg discomfort. The school personnel administered first assistance to them in the dormitory. Afterwards, at least 10 of them were transported to the neighbourhood health and wellness centre for treatment the next day on Friday as their conditions worsened.
“Since we did not attend the games class on Thursday, we were asked to do 200 sit-ups by the warden Elizabeth Kumud Toppo,” reported a class VII student, Sabita Kumari.
Block Development Officer (BDO) Pradeep Kumar Das visited the students on Friday and assessed the situation after learning about the occurrence. He stated, “I was told by the girls that after the games period, they were punished by the warden to do 200 sit-ups for not attending the class following which they complained of intensive pain in their legs and many of them got uncurious.”
“We will soon prepare a report and hand it over to the district headquarters,” he added. When contacted, the warden responded that she no longer wanted to work there and wanted to be transferred because of the stress caused by the burden of all the students.
She also professed that she had indeed given them punishment for skipping the games period. “Out of the total of 176 students, only six girls attended the games class, due to which, they were punished to do the sit-ups,” she accepted.
Local public leaders have requested that the warden be subjected to stern punishment for such insensitive action. Furthermore, complaints were filed about the warden earlier, but they claimed that nothing was done to address them.