Want condoms too? IAS officer rebukes girl seeking pads

PATNA: A senior IAS officer and chairperson-cum-MD of women and child development corporation (WCDC) Harjot Kaur Bamhrah has kicked up a major controversy by publicly mocking very small demand of a poor schoolgirl, who wanted sanitary napkins to be provided to them in an event.

“Can't the government provide us with the affordable sanitary napkins that come for Rs 20-30 (a pack),” a schoolgirl had asked her during a one-day workshop titled “Sashakt Beti, Samridh Bihar: Towards enhancing the value of girls in Bihar”, organised by WCDC in partnership with international NGOs on Tuesday.




“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,” was what Kaur told the girl. The official also reacted badly when the girl, after feeling a bit humiliated, threatened not to vote for the government in the next elections.


Bamhrah said, “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)!”

Repeated calls and text messages sent to Bamhrah went unanswered but social welfare minister Madan Sahni expressed shock over the matter.

“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,” the minister told TOI over phone on Wednesday.

“When you suppress their demand, then who one will ask questions from the government?” asked Sahni, adding he would discuss the issue with his department secretary on Wednesday. He said the government had already done a lot of things for the women class such as granting reservation to females in state panchayat bodies and government jobs.

Strangely, Bamhrah in her address had advised the girls to be “self-dependent to break the gender barriers” adding “various schemes of the state government are aimed at the elimination of gender disparity”.

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