Bizzare order: Village panchayat directs schools to click students inside toilets

Note: This photo has been intentionally blurred to protect privacy.

New Delhi: A village panchayat in Dhamtari district of Chattisgarh has issued a rather intrusive order of clicking school students in the toilet and sharing these photos daily on a WhatsApp group.

Bizzare? Read on.

The panchayat has issued the directive to teachers and authorities in 355 schools which were provided with low-cost toilets under the Swachh Bharat Mission. They have been asked to click photos of not just students relieving themselves but of them washing their hands afterwards and of other hygiene-related acitivites. While the objective is believed to be better monitoring of toilet habits and condition of these structures, snapping photos of students relieving themselves - and sharing them on WhatsApp subsequently - has not gone down too well with school teachers and authorities.

School officials have strongly protested against the order. Apart from considering it outrightly ludicrous, most say it is an invasion of a child's privacy and that there are other ways of ensuring proper habits are instilled in children and condition of toilets are monitored.