Haryana: A minor girl died on July 13 in Haryana’s Faridabad because she was forced to sit in a school exam despite being unwell. School authorities did not inform her parents about her sickness, although she had informed her class teacher about it, her parents said.
The girl was identified as 11-year-old Aradhya Khandelwal, who was a student in class 7 at a CBSE school in Faridabad.
While speaking to the media, the mother of Aradhya’s classmate said, “My daughter was Aradhya’s best friend. She told me that when the girl informed her class teacher that she was feeling nauseous, she was asked to go to the washroom. Aradhya was then made to sit through the test despite feeling uneasy.”
Aradhya’s father, Abhilash Khandelwal said, “That is when we realised that she wasn’t well. But we thought it was the first time that day that she had puked. We had no idea about what had happened in the school.”
After receiving medication prescribed by the family doctor, Aradhya’s condition showed slight improvement. However, on the morning of July 14, she experienced a relapse and began vomiting again, leading to her being rushed to the hospital. Despite the efforts of the doctors, she tragically passed away. In the aftermath, her grieving parents accused the school of negligence, believing that their daughter’s life could have been saved if they had been informed about her deteriorating health on July 13.
In response to the serious allegations, the school principal expressed willingness to cooperate fully with the investigation and assured Aradhya’s parents that an internal inquiry would be conducted. It remains uncertain whether Aradhya’s parents lodged a formal complaint with the police, but they took to Twitter to publicly voice their grievances against the school.
