'They said I had to lick blanket': student recounts shocking punishment

The class V student at Visva Bharati University, who was punished for bedwetting by allegedly being forced to lick urine-sodden sheets, has said she was forced to do it by the hostel’s warden and she would not return to her school.

Describing the incident, the girl said, “The hostel warden came in when I was getting ready for school. She asked me to take the soiled blanket out. She sprinkled salt over it & asked me to lick it. I said I won’t.”

“I said I won’t lick it. I felt disgusted. They said I have to as this is my punishment,” she told CNN IBN.

The warden of the hostel, Uma Poddar, had reportedly said in an inquiry that she had made the girl lick the sheets after her parents asked her to help cure the girl of her habit of bedwetting. The girl has said that she would not return to the school.

“I told my parents I will not go to that school again, put me anywhere else,” she said.

The girl’s parents have also denied that they had asked the warden of the hostel to assist them in any way.

“Only the warden knows what her intentions were, making the girl lick her own urine, especially when we were already getting her treated. We had already shown her to a doctor. The doctor assured us she would get better, and she was getting better,” the girl’s mother said.

Speaking about the condition of her daughter after the incident, she said,“She is very traumatised. Everytime someone even mentions the school, she is terrified. She does not even eat or drink anything. She is disgusted with herself.”

The girl’s parents had also been arrested by the police after the hostel’s warden had filed a complaint against them alleging intimidation. The warden was also arrested by the police for the punishment meted out to the girl.