School warden accused of forcing child to drink her own urine

The Irish Times - Wednesday, July 11, 2012

RAHUL BEDI in New Delhi

THE FEMALE warden of a hostel of a girls school in Indias eastern Bengal state, who allegedly forced a 10-year old girl to drink her own urine as punishment for bed-wetting, was granted bail yesterday by a district judge.

In a case that has outraged the country, Punita Mistris parents claimed that Uma Poddar, warden of Patha Bhavan school in Shantiniketan, 212km from the state capital Kolkata, had squeezed urine into their daughters mouth from the sheet she had wet while sleeping.

In their complaint to the local police at the weekend, Punitas parents said Ms Poddar had admitted to making their daughter drink her own urine as treatment to stop the bad habit of bed-wetting.

Ms Poddar has declined to make any public comment while the girl is undergoing medical and psychiatric treatment as she was taken ill after ingesting the urine.

The incident took place on Saturday night when Punita wet her bed because she was unwell. Her parents only found out about it when the mother called the warden to inquire after their daughters health and thereafter rushed to the school.

However, in a bizarre twist, the girls parents were arrested by the police on a complaint filed by Ms Poddar for entering the hostel without permission and taking their daughter away.

However they have been granted unconditional bail by a local court which severely reprimanded the police for arresting them.

The Patha Bhavan school attended by middle-class children from surrounding towns in Bengal is run by Viswa Bharati University which was established by Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913.

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School warden accused of forcing child to drink her own urine

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