College students living in a hostel in the western Indian state of Gujarat complained that they were made to strip and show their underwear to female teachers to prove they were not menstruating.
68 young women were pulled out of classrooms and taken to the toilet, where they were asked to individually remove their underwear for inspection. The incident took place in the city of Bhuj on Tuesday. The young women are undergraduate students at Shree Sahajanand Girls Institute (SSGI), which is run by Swaminarayan sect, a wealthy and conservative Hindu religious group. They said a hostel official had complained to the college principal on Monday that some of the students were breaking rules menstruating women are supposed to follow.
What rules are the menstruating women supposed to follow?
According to these rules, women are barred from entering the temple and the kitchen and are not allowed to touch other students during their periods. At meal times they have to sit away from others and they have to clean their own dishes. The rules also extend to the classroom where they are expected to sit on the last bench.
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