Kamalika Das was just another teenager who went to school, had her friends, did her work, and every other thing about her life was regular. But, only until she turned 13.
In September 2010, she was sexually harassed by a boy from her school, older than her, during the school hours. This isn’t the worse part of the story, there is more to come.
Initially left dumbstruck, she didn’t know what to do. Being a strong gutted person she was, Kamalika regained her composure, and gathered strength to go to the principal and talk about it. She wasn’t among the ones who kept quiet.
Instead of acknowledging the courage of the teenager, she was shunned down by her principal. The principal dismissed her complaint, and without even looking into the matter, she declared the boy innocent.
Kamalika still didn’t lose hope. She went to her mother and narrated the whole incident.
When her mother went to the principal, looking for justice for her daughter, the response which she got there was shocking. Instead of taking this matter seriously, the school authorities told her, “These things keep on happening everywhere. Why are you making a huge issue of it? Don’t bring a bad name to the school and spoil its reputation.”
Life was never the same after that for Kamalika.
When she participated in Nirbhaya’s candle march along with her friends, they realized how grave the scenario is, and how much courage it takes to speak up.
In the next few days, she became a subject of bullying. Her teachers would always pick on her, pass comments and make her feel embarrassed about the incident. Instead of protecting her and encouraging her to get over it, they thought of her as an attention seeker, a liar, and even raised questions about her character.
Kamalika maintained a diary, in that she had written that she became all alone after that terrible incident. No one stood by her. Her friends were advised by their parents to stop hanging out with her, as she had a bad impression in school, and how it may lead to deterioration of their academic performance as well. That’s how obsessed everyone is with marks, in India. If the people around her would have behaved differently, then perhaps she might have been able to bear all that.
After almost 4 years of that incident, something worse happened.
Kamalika was supposed to submit an assignment for the school. She couldn’t finish it on time, so what she did was, took her friend’s assignment, changed the name using a whitener and submitted it. She was caught. Agreed, it was her fault. But the school authorities, instead of giving her punishment for this activity, brought back the incident which happened 4 years back.
They mentally harassed Kamalika for the mistake, shamed her and eventually suspended her. The principal asked her to bring her mother along, and then she made her mother apologise. This humiliated Kamlika more.
After they went back home, they had lunch in complete silence. Kamalika went to her room after eating. Her mother thought that she was reading, as she had a book in her hand, but it was actually her diary in which she wrote her death note.
She left the house in the evening, and went to a neighboring building where they lived earlier. She climbed up to the seventh floor, and jumped.
The humiliation which her mother faced eventually pushed her off the edge. Kamalika is no more with us.
If the school would have helped Kamalika in getting some kind of counselling or support, things would never have turned this ugly, and our Kamalika would still be present.
In case of Kamalika what happened was, when her mother discussed about going to the counsellor with Ms Snigdha Deb, the principal, her reply was, “What is the use of going to a counsellor? If you were a good mother, you wouldn’t require going to a counsellor.”
It is in fact the story of 1000s of other students whose voices get lost because of such people.
And that is why Smita Sharma, Kamalika’s cousin has started a petition to provide guidelines for every school, making it compulsory for them to ensure that students get professional counselling when they come out to discuss such serious problems.
The petition will be forwarded to HRD minister, Smriti Irani, by a prominent women’s rights activist, Ranjana Kumari. The signature count is expected to reach 1 lakh by next week. You should also sign it to ensure that no other girl faces what Kamalika had to. Click Here to sign the petition.
This post is a part of our #SaveTheKids Campaign. To check out more posts from this campaign, click here.
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