In a recent update to the minor Hindu girl suicide case from Thanjavur, a new testimony video of the girl has surfaced, in which the child speaks about how she was tortured, but does not mention conversion.
In this video, which was published by the India Ahead Tamil YouTube channel, an unknown person is video-graphing the child as she narrates the circumstances that led her to consume poison. After mentioning her name and her parents’ name, she moves onto convey the incidents. “I always secure the first rank in my class. But, this year, due to a family situation, I was not able to go to school for a few days. I started going to school a little late. The Sister at my boarding school would always ask me to do mathematics. She would never listen even if I told her that I couldn’t understand the concepts because I joined late, and that I would complete the mathematical problems later. She would say that it’s okay and will always make me write something or the other.
Even if I write it correctly, she would say it is incorrect and make me sit for an hour, to solve just one math problem. I was not able to concentrate at all. Due to this reason, I was securing lesser grades. As this continued, I thought that I won’t be able to study and therefore I consumed poison,” she says in the video.
The unknown person who is taking the video then asks the name of the sister for which the child replies, “Sagamary”. He then goes onto ask her if the name of the Father (Pastor) of the school, for which she says there is no Father. Then, when he asks for the name of the school headmistress, the child says that she is not involved in any of this. On insistence, she then names the headmistress as Arogyamary.
The videographer then asked her if she was asked to do any other work, for which the child replied, “They would ask me to lock the gate, They will ask me to do all the chores. I have to open the gate when everybody wakes up in the morning. I have to turn on the motor, and check if water is available after everybody finishes eating. Warden sir makes me do all the work. When I ask him why I should do all the chores, he would say that only I was responsible.”
The person then asks if they ever told her not to wear a Bindi in school, for which the child says no. And then when the person asks he if she came home for Pongal, she says, “When I asked them for going home, they told me that I needed to study and made me stay there (in school) itself. They sent me home for Pongal because I was feeling unwell.” He then asks her if they were aware of her consumption of poison, for which she replies that they were unaware.
It is to be noted that the incident of “forceful conversion” has not been mentioned anywhere in this video. However, the child has claimed that she was tortured and was made to do all the chores.
In the earlier video which went viral (believed to be a portion of this video), the girl had mentioned that there was attempt to convert to her two years ago.
(With inputs from India Ahead Tamil)
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.