Guwahati, Feb 1 (IANS) A Class 8 girl student of an English medium school in this Assam city Guwahati Monday attempted suicide by jumping from the second floor of the institution, alleging humiliation and punishment by teachers for speaking in Assamese.
Teenaged Nabanita Das is now in the intensive care unit of a city hospital with back and limb injuries, although doctors said she was out of danger.

The girl said she was immensely humiliated by the vice-principal of the Gurukul Grammar Higher Secondary School for speaking in Assamese with some of her friends inside the school premises.

“I was punished by my vice-principal - asked to kneel down outside, then I was asked to write down in English 1,000 times that I would never speak in Assamese again. Also I was asked to learn English from Class 1 students….I felt so humiliated in front of my friends that I decided to end my life by jumping from the second floor of the school,” Nabanita told journalists from her hospital bed.

Parents and relatives complained that the school authorities behaved rudely with them when they went to enquire about the incident.

“No teachers cooperated with us and refused to say anything about how the incident took place. The security guards present in the school simply tried shoving us out from the campus as if we are criminals,” Gautam Das, elder brother of Nabanita, told IANS.

School authorities refrained to make any comments on the incident.

A guardian said: “We were simply shocked and stunned by this incident of a teacher forcing a student to take this extreme step.”