FIR against teachers revives corporal punishment debate

RANCHI: Schools in the city continue to practice corporal punishment despite laws prohibiting spanking at educational institutes.The July 11 incident, where an FIR was lodged against three teachers of a city school, brought back the case of seven-year-old Sujit Munda in February to light and revived the debate on whether corporal punishment is at all necessary to discipline a child. The state child rights department has written to the senior superintendant of police in Ranchi demanding proper inquiry into the corporal punishment case at Gurunanak Public School.Jharkhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (JSCPCR) wrote to SSP Prabhat Kumar on Monday saying the body would send its probe team to the school. Sanjay Mishra, member of JSCPCR, said, "We have written to the SSP regarding investigation in the matter. Once the investigation report is prepared and produced in the police station we will go through it and starting our own enquiry by visiting the school and talking to students and teachers."On July 11, an FIR was lodged with the Hindpirhi police station by the family of a Class VIII student of Gurunanak Public School and his father against three teachers of school, including the boy's class teacher, the physical education teacher and vice principal of the school for physically assaulting the child leading to head injury.This was not the first case of corporal punishment in the state. In February, Sujit Munda, who lived in Ranchi district's Chanho block, died after he was allegedly tortured by his school teacher.Mrinal Sahni, a student of DAV Hehal, was beaten up in December 2011after his feet touched the teacher's feet mistakenly in the school bus. In the same year, Anuj Kumar, a 12-year-old student in Palamau, was caned by his teacher for being five minutes late to his class. The boy became paralyzed and had to be referred to AIIMS in Delhi.Ganesh Reddy, member of the expert panel of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), said, "More than 95% cases of corporal punishment go unreported in Jharkhand due to lack of awareness among children and parents. Even teachers are unaware of the fact that corporal punishment is considered a crime." According to two major Acts for protection of child rights, Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, corporal punishment is a crime. Section 17 (1) of the RTE Act is designed to protect a child from physical and mental harassment while Section 23 of the Juvenile Justice Act can ensure punishment. Despite these, many teachers believe that beating up a child can correct his behaviour. Sukujatan Toppon, principal of Gossner Middle School in Ranchi, told TOI, "Beating is necessary for those students who do not understand easily and are disobedient."Some parents too agreed. Avinash Singh's daughter was beaten up by her teacher for her inability to solve a mathematics sum in class. He said, "If my daughter was not able to solve the sum, it was her fault and the teacher just tried to correct her. Even our teachers used to beat us up in school and it had no negative impact on us."But NCPCR's Reddy said beating up a child can have an adverse effect on his personality. It can either make him arrogant and disobedient or affect his self-confidence. "When a child is beaten up in front of his classmates, he feels humiliated and his confidence level goes down. Teachers should talk to the child in seclusion if the child has done anything wrong. If a child is punished in front of his classmates, he feels inferior to his peers," Reddy said.New-age parents agreed to view. "I think a child can be taught the difference between right and wrong just by talking to them. I was beaten up by parents for every trivial mistake but now when I look back, I feel that if my parents just tried to explain things,I would have understood," said Anup Kumar, father of a five-year-old girl.Meanwhile, none of the three teachers have been arrested despite the FIR being lodged. Officer in charge of Hindpirhi police station, Md. Farooq said, "We cannot arrest them until the investigation is over. A person has been appointed for investigation and he has been to the school and to Sadar hospital where the boy was provided medical aid."He added, "The case is not as simple as it looks. The teachers and students of the school have been saying that the boy was not very disciplined at the school. Also, the teachers of the school claim that the school has a clinic and if the boy was injured in the school he would have been treated at the clinic but the boy did not go to the clinic at all. The investigation is still going on and we will do any arrests only after we get the report."However, Right to Education Act has still not been implemented by the police in the case and the teachers have still not been booked under Sec 17 (1) of RTE Act which says that no child should be subjected to physical or mental harassment.