Raipur | If you wear short dresses, you would get raped ‘just like Nirbhaya’: Teacher tells students

On a day when the nation is outraged over the barbaric rape of an 8-month-old baby by her cousin in Delhi, news of a bizarre ‘counselling’ session backing Nirbhaya rapists can baffle anyone. 

In Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur, a female teacher of a Kendriya Vidyalaya reportedly told girl students that if they wear lipstick and short dresses; they would get raped ‘just like Nirbhaya.’

During the ‘counselling session’ of Class IX and XI girl students, Snehlata Shankhwar, the biology teacher told them that girls who go out late in night are inviting trouble and are ‘asking for it.’

She backed the rapists and said that it is a girl’s duty to stay home after dark, a Times of India report said on Tuesday. Nothing would have happened to Nirbhaya ahd she stayed home. The teacher also questioned why she went out with a guy, who was not her husband. Her parents should not have allowed going out in first place.

The incident came to light after some of the girls recorded the session and showed it to the school principal. Bhagwan Das Ahire, the Principal, confirmed to Times of India, that a complaint has been registered against the accused teacher and a panel will look into the matter.

Not just students, the parents are outraged too. Many feel that such a discussion in the school will leave the students stigmatised. Many complain that the ‘counselling session’ was nothing short of mental harassment. 

The teacher has not reacted to the complaint so far. 

On December 16, 2012, six men had brutally assaulted Jyoti Pandey, the 23-year-old paramedic student, and a male friend in a moving bus as it drove through the streets of New Delhi. She was thrown out of the bus -- so grievously injured that her insides were spilling out -- along with her male friend near the airport.

A fortnight later, on December 29, 2012, she succumbed in a Singapore hospital.