Girls will remain curious girls

A government aided girls’ school in Calcutta has been in the news for harassing a bunch of girls who were apparently indulging in ‘indecent behaviour’. The girls were forced to write “I am a lesbian” on a piece of parents and their parents were summoned to see the proof. The girls apparently need to be ‘corrected’.

While I am genuinely aghast at the school’s inept handling of the situation, I cannot help but laugh at their folly. Going by the school’s yardstick, every girls’ school in the country is perhaps teeming with lesbians – and no, nobody needs to be ‘corrected’.

Let’s face it, we have all been through the phase when curiosity always got the better of us. There would always be the one or two girls in the pack, with seemingly more knowledge about human anatomy than the rest of us. And their status, in a girl’s school or a strict convent, was pretty much exalted. I remember, in my school, a group of girls seemed to have more first-hand knowledge of how things worked, than the biology teachers. And they were icons! Lunch breaks and in-between classes, we would get into a huddle, listening to their latest exploits, and wondering if we would ever get lucky.

There were also the few who were a little touchy feely – perhaps a little more than was comfortable – but there was nothing unusual about it. Many of these girls hailed from conservative families, and school was the only pace for these girls to express themselves. Most of them outgrew that stage. Some didn’t. But at no point did we ever feel it was something ‘unnatural’ that needed to be fixed.

Sexual awakening happens much earlier these days and one does feel sorry for girls whose social interactions are constantly edited, censored and scrutinised by tyrannical family members and institutions. Think about this – a 14-year-old girl who is not allowed to mingle with boys, make friends outside of school or socialise freely – gets a little naughty with her friend. It may or may not be a one-off.

This school is not the first one to penalise a student for breaching the ‘sanskari’ code of conduct. Chances are, it will not be the last either. By ostracizing them, humiliating them and making an example out of them, what are we trying to tell our children? On the one hand we are talking about good and bad touch at age four, holding sessions about sexual harassment and urging them to speak up. On the other, we are punishing them for expressing themselves freely.

If every girl who has ever had a fleeting sexual adventure in a school were to be punished, classrooms around the country would be empty by now. Because young girls indulging in a spot of touch-and-feel- is every girls’ school worst kept secret.

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