Barbaric Incident in Hitech City

Hyderabad: Headmaster Basavalingam of Madhapur government high school has been suspended for dereliction of duty on Tuesday; he did not know anything about a school girl delivering a baby in the bathroom on Saturday.The incident came as a glaring example of carelessness of teachers and administration at government schools. The Madhapur government high school is located very much amidst the most advanced society of Hitech City in Hyderabad.

Neither her class teacher, any of the 13 women teachers at school, nor the administration cared to take note of the pregnancy of the girl for nine months. Most deplorable aspect in the whole case is, the 13-year-old class 9 student, belonging to a poor family that resides in a Thanda (a cluster of Lambada families) near Hitech City, herself didn't know she was about to deliver a baby. She came to school just like any normal day, but when labor pains started, she thought it was stomach ache and wanted to go to bathroom. Until the teacher who took her to bathroom and was waiting outside heard the cries of the newborn, no one including the girl knows it was a delivery.

The school staff take an excuse that as the girl is thin, she managed to hide her pregnancy for all nine months. The girl lost her mother a few years back and lives with her father and three sisters of whom she is the third and youngest is four-year-old in the family. One Dhanu or Dinesh, who had been accompanying the girl to school and back, is suspected to have impregnated the girl. She is not clear about it. Girl's father took her to Uppal where his eldest daughter resides and the baby was handed over to some other family for care taking. The mother and baby are healthy.

The District Education Officer Ramesh issued suspension orders on Basavalingam and memos to seven other staff members at the school. The police are investigating and searching for the suspect Dhanu.