IAS officer humiliates school girl asking sanitary pads saying “Want condoms for free?”

Senior IAS officer and chairperson-cum-MD of women and child development corporation (WCDC) Harjot Kaur Bamhrah have initiated a severe debate by publicly humiliating a poor schoolgirl, who desired to get sanitary napkins from the government at a minimal cost.

A one-day workshop titled “Sashakt Beti, Samridh Bihar: Towards enhancing the value of girls in Bihar” was organized by WCDC in partnership with international NGOs late on Tuesday. A school girl asked the IAS officer while addressing the event: “Can the government give us sanitary napkins at Rs 20-30”?

The officer answered by rebuking the girl “Is there any end to such demand? Tomorrow you can ask for jeans, then beautiful shoes and finally when it comes to family planning, you can say the government should give condoms too”. The girl felt humiliated and threatened that she would not vote the party in the next elections. However she received a bad reaction.

Bamhrah then lashed out by saying,“Mat do tum vote! Sarkar tumhari hai. Bewakoofi ki intaha hai! Nahin, nahin mat do tum vote (You don’t need to vote. It's the height of stupidity)!”A number of calls and text messages were sent to Bamhrah which remained unanswered. 

Social welfare minister Madan Sahni expressed astonishment over the matter and said “She (IAS officer) was supposed to boost up the morale of the girl children but instead she was found discouraging them. This is not fair. She must refrain from saying such things in public. When you suppress their demand, then who one will ask questions from the government?”

The minister had decided to discuss the incident with his department secretary on Wednesday. He explained the efforts of government for women empowerment which includes the law of granting reservation to females in state panchayat bodies and government jobs. Ironically Bamhrah had advised the girls to be “self-dependent to break the gender barriers” while addressing the event.