New Delhi: A day after the reply by an IAS officer in Bihar to a student’s question on sanitary pads sparked a row, the National Commission for Women, taking cognizance of the matter, sought a written explanation from the bureaucrat within seven days.
Bihar’s IAS Harjot Kaur Bhamra seems trapped by her own statement. In fact, during an event on Tuesday, IAS Harjot Kaur Bhamra made an absurd comment on a student’s question. The student had asked a question about free sanitary napkins, to which Harjot Kaur responded by asking if condoms were required. Discussions were going on in Bihar for two days regarding this statement. But now Harjot Kaur Bhamra seems to be stuck in the ‘Condom’ episode. This is because the National Commission for Women has paid attention to this.
A video of Bihar senior IAS officer Harjot Kaur Bhamra went viral. A school girl said at an event that the government cannot provide sanitary pads that cost Rs 20-30. To the girl’s question, the senior woman IAS officer said that they can give you a sanitary pad for Rs 20-30. You can deliver jeans-pants tomorrow, but you can’t deliver shoes the next day? IAS officer Harjot Kaur says that people will start asking for condoms tomorrow when it comes to family planning. They can also give. In fact, Women and Child Development Corporation, UNICEF, Save the Children and Plan International organized a workshop on ‘Sashak Beti, Samriddhi Bihar: Enhancing the Value of the Girl Child’. In this workshop, a girl asked, can’t the government provide sanitary pads for Rs 20-30? Harjot Kaur Bamra, Chairman and Managing Director of Women and Child Development Corporation gave a controversial reply.
“There is need to change the mindset. Why [should] the government provide you everything free? Tomorrow you’ll say government can provide jeans and why not some beautiful shoes thereafter? And eventually, at the time of family planning, you will expect government to provide Nirodh [brand of condom] too,” Ms. Bamrah replies in the video.
When another student tells Ms. Bamrah about the broken toilet door at her school, which boys could enter, the officer asks her in cool voice, “Tell me, do you have separate toilets at your home for males and females? If you keep asking for lot of things at different places, how will it work
