Asked student to consume urine as cure, not punishment: Warden

The warden of a hostel accused of forcing a class V student to consume urine as punishment for bedwetting, has defended her action saying she was attempting to cure the girl of it after being asked for her help by the girl’s parents.

Uma Poddar, the warden who has been suspended by the Visva Bharati University, has said that the girl’s mother had called her the night before the incident and told her about the girl’s problem and sought her help, the Indian Express reported .

The warden has also claimed that she did not force the girl to continue after she began crying, the report stated, adding that the statements of another hostel warden and the girl’s cousins were also taken.

The warden’s statements were recorded as part of a report sent to the Prime Minister’s Office, after it inquired about the incident which sparked off controversy and resulted in the girl leaving the school and the warden being suspended.

However, the girl’s parents have denied asking the warden to assist in curing the girl’s bedwetting problem and said the incident was not an isolated one, the warden had allegedly tried to punish the girl in a similar manner earlier.

“The warden had tried twice earlier but she was not successful but on 7 July she was successful in doing so….A similar treatment was attempted twice before but my daughter had not spoken about it to us,”  the girl’s father told CNN IBN.

The girl’s parents denied giving permission to Poddar, the hostel warden, to punish the girl in this manner and said that they would not send their daughter back to the school.

“They are saying that we can send our daughter to the school again but my daughter doesn’t want to study there. She is scared and even we are not ready to send her there,” the girl’s mother said.

The girl’s parents and warden had registered cases with the police against each other after the incident. The police had arrested the warden and the girl’s parents and released them on bail.

The University had also sent a three member team consisting of a teacher, the principal and registrar of the school to try and convince the girl to return to the school.

Social activist Swami Agnivesh had also sparked off controversy by suggesting that the media had exaggerated the case and the punishment was not unusual to cure someone for bedwetting.