Bharuch school punishes girls over mehendi, apologises later

A day after some girl students were punished for wearing mehendi to classes, a school in Bharuch apologised for the incident on Wednesday. The apology came after parents protested against the school and the local MLA intervened.

The incident took place at Queen of Angel's Convent School at Vadadala on the outskirts of Bharuch city on Tuesday. The school principal allegedly made around 25 girls stand outside their classrooms for four hours as punishment for wearing mehendi on their hands. The girls had put on mehendi on the occasion of Gauri Vrat, which ended a couple of days ago. They were not only punished by the school authorities, but also asked not to attend classes till the colour of mehendi is washed off from their hands. The incident sparked off angry protests from parents, who gathered at the school to express their objection to the administration.

BJP legislator Dushyant Patel asked school authorities to refrain from any act that could hurt religious sentiments. Later, the school management apologised to the parents and media, and assured that such incident would not be repeated.