Visva Bharati apologises to student, promises overhaul of hostel system

Kolkata: In the wake of Visva-Bharati hitting the headlines after a girl student was forced by a warden to drink her own urine, the university has decided to overhaul the warden-matron system in its hostels to regain the confidence of students and guardians. [caption id=“attachment_375981” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Uma Poddar, the warden who is accused of punishing the girl. PTI[/caption]“Visva-Bharati has decided to overhaul the entire warden-matron system prevailing in its school hostels for years and seek avenues on how to improve the situation, befitting the stature of a central university of international repute,” Visva-Bharati Registrar Manimukut Mitra said today in a press statement. Uma Poddar, a warden of Karabi girls’ hostel, was arrested by police and later suspended by the varsity for compelling a class V student to drink her own urine as a punishment for bed-wetting. Saying that the university unequivocally regrets the traumatic experience which the student had to undergo, the registrar assured parents of all students of Patha Bhavan, run by the university, that such instances will not recur. “The university is committed to holistic and humanised education, in the highest of traditions set by its founder ‘Gurudev’ Tagore, and make its schools centres of excellence in the contemporary world,” the registrar said. Requesting the girl’s parents to send her back to Patha Bhavan, the university has allowed her to attend classes as a day-boarder as an exceptional case. The girl’s family, however, is not keen to send her back and is seeking admission in some other school. Meanwhile, posters in support of Poddar were found pasted on various places in the Visva-Bharati campus today. The unsigned posters, written in Bengali, claimed there was a conspiracy to frame Poddar. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the posters, some of which were also critical of the way the university affairs were being conducted. Yesterday, a report submitted by the Union HRD Ministry to the PMO stated Poddar had compelled the girl to drink her own urine at the instance of her mother who wanted her daughter to be freed of the bed-wetting habit. PTI