Jharkhand: Catholic school targeted in battle over shirts

The strict imposition of the uniform on the girls in class X even on the last day of school has become a pretext to accuse the Carmel School that has been operating for 70 years in the Dhanbad district. The headmistress told AsiaNews: ‘Only 2% of the students are Christian, education in the service of all’. Former students' stance: “Grateful to those who made us what we are”.

Ranchi (AsiaNews) - A simple disagreement over shirts worn over the school uniforms, in the Indian state of Jarkhand, is turning into yet another campaign against a Catholic educational facility ridden by Hindu nationalists.

At the centre of the controversy is the Carmel School in Digwadih, in the district of Dhanbad, for an incident that occurred on the last day of classes among the girls of class X, last 9 January.

For the students, this day has become Pen Day, during which it is customary to sign each other's clothing as a farewell message at the end of the school term. To do so, the girls presented themselves with an ad hoc shirt worn over the usual uniform. A gesture that the school headmaster Sr. Mary Devashree punished by requiring the 80 students to remove these shirts.

Fuelled by the usual Hindu nationalist circles, the affair quickly turned into a case. Complaints from parents and some local groups prompted Dhanbad Deputy Commissioner Madhwi Mishra to form a five-member committee to investigate the matter.

The Jharkhand State Legal Services Authority also ordered an investigation and requested a report. The National Commission for Protection of Children's Rights (NCPCR) headed by Priyang Kanoongo, a BJP figure who misses no opportunity to use this public body to attack Christian schools, could not miss the list: he too ordered the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to investigate the incident.

Faced with so much outcry, the sisters of the Apostolic Carmel themselves have sent an internal investigation, prudently suspending the headmistress from her administrative responsibilities. ‘If necessary, appropriate corrective measures will be recommended,’ said Sr Maria Kirti, provincial head of the congregation.

But all this risks losing sight of the service that this school has been providing in Jharkhand for more than 70 years. The Dhanbad administration itself recognised this in a statement, while a group of former pupils also issued a note calling for the defence of this institution established in a small village like Digwadih. ‘We owe a deep debt of gratitude to the nuns and teachers for their work and dedication that made us what we are today.’

Sr. Mary Devashree - the headmistress who ended up under indictment - tells AsiaNews that she simply objected to a non-school activity and asked to wear the regular uniform. ‘In our school,’ she recalls, ’we have 1,300 pupils and only 2% are Christians. The emancipation of girls through quality education and an education in values has always been the mission of our school. The motto of our foundress, Mother Veronica, was ‘the education of girls of all classes and creeds’ and our education is directed towards the integral development of the person. We want to form women capable of responding to life's challenges with joy and women whose choices and decisions are guided by right values'.

For his part, Archbishop Elias Gonsalves, president of the Commission for Education and Culture of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI), commented to AsiaNews: ’The Catholic Church in India has been at the forefront in the education of girls, and the news that has been spread is manipulated.