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ShareNEW DELHI: The 'sexual growth survey' that has touched off a furore in Delhi's elite Sardar Patel Vidyalaya was a routine medical checkup claimed the school principal Vijaya Subramaniam on Thursday.
She denied that the students were asked to take off their clothes for a physical examination.
But Dr KN Aggarwal, the head of the team that carried out the examination, admitted that the boys were told to take off their trousers, and the girls asked to open their shirt buttons.
The act was a part of an ongoing study carried out by the Noida-based Health Care and Research Association for Adolescents.
The association is a private research body funded by the Indian National Science Academy and other entities.
"Among other things, we were checking for hernia and hydrocele [accumulation of fluid in the scrotum],'' Dr Aggarwal told DNA.
"We found that three out of roughly 250 boys were suffering from hydrocele. In one case, the problem was alarming and we advised the child to inform his parents.''
Dr Aggarwal said the girls were questioned about their menstrual periods. "This is part of our regular research on adolescent growth patterns,'' he said.
What seems to have upset parents is the school's callous attitude. The authorities did not inform them about the checkup, nor did they seek prior consent of the parents even though the examination involved intrusive procedures.
Delhi's Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely was critical of the school's failure to follow proper procedures. "The school should have taken permission from the parents,'' he said.
"This year, we thought sexual growth among adolescents should be checked, so when the association approached us, we gave the doctors permission,'' Subramaniam said.
Parents want to know whether it was proper for the school to demand decisions like this from minors studying in standards VI to XII. "The age of consent is 18 years,'' said a parent.
Subramaniam conceded that some parents were upset when they found out about the checkup from their children. "We did not expect such outrage over the issue,'' Subramaniam said.
Dr Agarwal said his association assumed the school had taken permission.
