12th standard girl ends life after missionary school pressurises her to convert to Christianity to continue her study

Case ID : 04aec22 | Location : Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 18 January, 2022
Case ID : 04aec22
location Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India
date 18 January, 2022
12th standard girl ends life after missionary school pressurises her to convert to Christianity to continue her study
Predatory Proselytisation
Suicide after pressure to convert
Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

M. Lavanya, a 12th-grade student at Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, died by suicide after being tortured by school authorities for refusing to convert to Christianity. The government-aided Christian missionary school had reportedly pressured her to convert, warning that she must do so to continue her studies. Despite years of pressure, Lavanya steadfastly refused. Angered by her refusal, the school administration cancelled her leave for Pongal celebrations and forced her to perform menial tasks like cleaning toilets and cooking. Distressed, Lavanya consumed the pesticide used in the school garden. She showed signs of illness on January 9 and was taken to a clinic after vomiting. Her parents were called, and she was later admitted to Tanjore Government Medical College Hospital, where she battled for her life with severe lung damage. Lavanya passed away on January 19, 2022. A video surfaced on social media in which Lavanya, in a weakened state, detailed the torture she endured. She mentioned being pressured to convert and named a school staff member, Rachael Mary, as her tormentor. The incident sparked outrage, with Hindu organizations like VHP and Hindu Munnani demanding justice. Protests erupted, and the VHP vowed to continue until action was taken against the school.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the hate tracker under the prime category- Predatory Proselytisation. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Suicide after pressure to convert- When there is pressure, threat or coercion employed upon the Hindu victim to convert to a different religion, in several cases, owing to the humiliation or pressure/threat, the victim commits suicide. In such cases, the pressure/threat/intimidation/coercion/violence itself is driven by animosity towards the victim’s Hindu faith. The pressure/threat that is employed leads to the Hindu victim taking his own life. Since the victim’s faith is at the heart of the pressure to convert and the ensuing suicide by the victim, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. Here, a Hindu 12th-grade student was subjected to relentless pressure from the Christian missionary school to convert to Christianity, with school authorities warning that her continued education depended on her acceptance of their conversion demands. Despite enduring years of pressure, she remained firm in her refusal, an act that reportedly enraged the administration. In retaliation, the school imposed harsh and dehumanizing punishments on Lavanya, including the revocation of her leave during Pongal celebrations and forcing her to perform menial tasks like cleaning toilets and cooking. This use of intimidation, combined with emotional and psychological distress, ultimately pushed her to take her own life. This case highlights how religious coercion was intertwined with threats and exploitation, targeting Lavanya's vulnerability. The systematic abuse of authority and the manipulation of her circumstances for the purpose of forced conversion underscores the predatory nature of the proselytization efforts in this case, making it a clear violation of her religious freedom. By pushing Lavanya towards conversion, the teachers of the Christian Missionary school aimed to forcefully erase her religious identity, which is a form of religious persecution, stemming from the deep disdain that the perpetrators held for the victim's faith, Hinduism. Since the central motivation was religion, this case has been added as a hate crime. It is important to mention here that the CBI in its investigation claimed that there was no evidence found of forced conversion in the case of Lavanya. However, the assertion by the CBI disregards the dying declaration and what the law says about such declarations. Sections 26 and 27 of BNS state that any statement made by a person as to the cause of their death or the circumstances of the transaction leading to their death is admissible as evidence. The statement is considered relevant whether or not the person making it was under the expectation of death. A person's dying declaration is treated as evidence itself when made with a sound mind and there is no evidence that Lavanya was not of sound mind. In this tracker, we have reserved the right to add the case in the hate tracker database if we believe the administration or the judiciary has disregarded the evidence of hate crime, as the administration has a propensity to do so on several occasions. For the purpose of this hate tracker, we are recording Lavanya's dying declaration and adding this case as a religiously motivated hate crime leading to her death by suicide.

Victim Details

Total Victim

1

Deceased

1

Gender

  • Male 0
  • Female 1
  • Third Gender 0
  • Unknown 0

Caste

  • SC/ST 0
  • OBC 0
  • General 0
  • Unknown 1

Age Group

  • Minor 1
  • Adult 0
  • Senior Citizen 0
  • Unknown 0
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Case Status

Complaint registered

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Perpetrators Details

Perpetrators

Christian Extremists

Perpetrators Range

N/A

Perpetrators Gender

unknown

Sources Sources

https://web.archive.org/web/20...https://www.opindia.com/2024/1...
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The details of each case are updated till the day it has been added to the database. It is not practical for us to manually track the progress of every case listed in the Hinduphobia Tracker database. If you have additional information which you believe should reflect here, please provide additional details by clicking the button below. If you believe this case should not be considered a religiously motivated hate crime, you can proceed to raise a dispute using the same button.
Please note the case ID: 04aec22 <click to copy case id>, you must enter the same in the form which will pop up after clicking the button.
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Total Disputes Raised: 1

Accepeted

0

Rejected

1

1.
Status | Rejected
Raised Disputes
This case as an example of Hinduphobia is speculation. The claim rests on an alleged video dying declaration from the girl, the evidence of which is missing in every link and article this case cites. Considering that the CBI and police have concluded that this is not about religious conversion, and the fact that these law enforcement agencies would have had access to such a video if it existed, implies that such a video does not exist. Therefore, this case needs to be removed from the database because there is no evidence to prove your claim, only 3rd party hearsay allegations. No video, no case.
Raised Dispute Explanation
The contention of the dispute raised in this case is that there is no video of the dying declaration of the victim. The dispute assumes that there is no video of the dying declaration and had there been one, the CBI would not dismiss the religious conversion angle. Since the CBI has dismissed the allegation, the video's existence itself comes into question. This, however, is untrue. The video exists and it was first tweeted by BJP leader Annamalai. Several media houses have documented the content of the video and what the Hindu victim said in it. One report where the video can still be found is enclosed (https://www.opindia.com/2022/01/tamil-nadu-girl-ends-life-after-school-pressurised-her-to-convert-to-christianity/). There have been several secondary confirmations of the victim's dying declaration and allegations of religious conversion. A report had revealed how even the victim;s grandmother had confirmed that the victim did indeed talk about pressure to convert to Christianity (https://thecommunemag.com/lavanya-told-her-uncle-that-she-was-forced-to-convert-lavanyas-maternal-grandmother-reveals/). The grandmother had given a statement to the media saying, “Lavanya confessed to her uncle that she consumed poison only because they forced her to convert to Christianity.” It is true that the CBI has claimed that there was no religious angle in the case. However, the Hinduphobia Tracker has added this case as a hate crime based on the dying declaration of the victim. The explanation as to why the dying declaration has been given credence has been included in the case explanation. For that reason, this dispute has been rejected.