Rights panel seeks report on IAS officer's 'Dalit students clean toilet' remark

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has issued a formal notice to the Telangana government seeking an Action Taken Report (ATR) over remarks made by a senior IAS officer, Alagu Varsini. The Commission has taken suo motu cognisance of Varsini’s comments, which allegedly stated that Dalit students are made to clean toilets in Scheduled Caste (SC) Gurukula schools.

The remarks came to public attention after an internal meeting, where Varsini, who is currently serving as Secretary of the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society, addressing school principals, was recorded saying, “They must do the room cleaning ... why can’t they clean their own toilets ... These children of ours, they are not from posh society, where as soon as they go and sit down, the meal comes on the table ... If someone replies that you are doing work, by order they have to do roti making, they will do roti making.”

The NCSC, in a notice dated May 31, directed the Telangana Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police to submit an ATR within 15 days. The Commission has also sought detailed information about the remarks and the circumstances in which they were made.

NCSC Director G Sunil Kumar Babu warned that non-compliance could lead the Commission to invoke its powers under Article 338 of the Constitution, which allows it to summon the authorities concerned for a personal or representative appearance before the Commission.

When India Today TV reached out to her for clarification of her remarks, Varsini said the comments were part of a 2.5-hour conversation. According to her, the discussion was with the principals about the implementation of an annual calendar that includes weekend “shamdan” (cleaning) activities such as ground, dormitory and toilet cleaning. She explained, “In the whole annual calendar, the shamdan should become a part of the children activity ... maybe 18 to 20 hours in the whole year the children would have put shamdan.”

She described the activity as an alternative to National Service Scheme (NSS) or Swachh Bharat programmes, stating, “Our schools do not have NSS ... usually we do it only for one day. So what we thought is to include it as a regular part of the calendar.”

She defended her earlier comments by saying the students she was talking about were from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds: “Our children are not from posh societies. The annual family income cannot cross Rs 2 lakh. That is our basic selection criteria.” Varsini also said many parents had requested that the schools impart life skills to children, complaining that students were not helping with chores at home during holidays.

“It is a very shameful thing that even in the era where we are introducing coding to our children, people still talk about caste politics,” she said. She alleged that the remarks were taken out of context and selectively edited to damage her reputation, adding, “Many reforms we are bringing .. . they cannot influence me, so all that they can do is tarnish my image.”