Corporal punishment should go!!

What punishment for corporal punishment?

A hostel warden at Visva Bharati University in West Bengal who forced a young girl student to drink her own urine as a punishment for bedwetting is a national shame. This incident is a wake-up call for policymakers to introduce a strong legislation that protects children from all sorts of violence. This horrible and disgusting incident has stressed the need to treat corporal punishment as a criminal offence with severe punishment for the teacher as well as the institution. It is ironical that in a nation with laws to prevent different types of cruelty against animals, the Police don’t find any legislation to protect our children whom we call our future. Had the police booked the warden under the Juvenile Justice Act, then she would have been arrested and put behind bars for five years. National Commission for Protection of Child Rights is now tasked with protecting the rights of the affected child by monitoring and enquiring into grievances or complaints of violation of child rights and initiate action without waiting for some more similar incidents to finally wake up to a realisation.

Corporal punishment is a brutal method of ascertaining discipline and has major reactive effects on the physical and mental health of the inflicted. The prevalence of corporal punishment in schools and all other settings as a social norm goes on unquestioningly causing untold harm to children. Punishment in any form in school comes in the way of the development of the full potential of children. Corporal punishment leads to adverse physical, psychological and educational outcomes including increased aggressive and disruptive behaviour in the classroom, school phobia, low self esteem, anxiety, suicide and retaliation against teachers that emotionally scar the children for life. Does not the police know that the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which has come into force with effect from 1 April 2010, prohibits ‘physical punishment’ and ‘mental harassment’ under Section 17(1) and makes it a punishable offence under Section 17(2).

It is a shame that children in our nation, which propagates non-violence, were often disciplined with the rod. If the educational institutions and the society want children to become silent recipients of violence in their tender years, then these punishments will hamper their physical and mental wellbeing in future. It is high time the government should ensure that children are not subjected to corporal punishment and they receive education in an environment of freedom and dignity, free from fear.

For your reading, the news report that appeared in The Hindu (09-07-2012)

Santiniketan hostel warden arrested, released on bail

Warden Uma Poddar, arrested for imposing a cruel punishment on a 10-year-old hostel girl for bedwetting, being produced in a court in Bolpur in Birbhum district on Monday. Photo: PTI

A court in West Bengal’s Birbhum district on Monday granted bail to the warden of a hostel of Visva Bharati University in Santiniketan after she was arrested for allegedly forcing a class V student of Patha Bhavan to drink her own urine as punishment for wetting her bed.

The court condemned the incident and criticised the police for booking the accused under bailable charges. It also asked why the accused was not booked under the Juvenile Justice Act. It directed that the warden bear the medical expenses of the girl student who fell ill after the incident on Saturday.

The parents had lodged a complaint against Uma Poddar, the warden of Karabi Hostel of Patha Bhavan, alleging that she had cruelly punished their daughter after she wet her bed on Saturday.

“The warden was arrested on Monday morning following a complaint by the parents of the student. She was produced before a court and was later granted bail,” Rishikesh Meena, Superintendent of Police said.

Ms. Poddar was booked under sections 341, 269 and 270 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for wrongful detention and negligent and malignant acts likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life. All the sections are bailable.

A complaint was also lodged against the parents by the University authorities for allegedly attacking the warden. They were also arrested and later granted bail during the day.

Meanwhile, the University authorities claimed that the child was not asked to drink her urine but lick the wet mattress of her bed.

“The warden told the student so only to terrify her. Moreover, it is a kind of superstitious practice aimed at curing bedwetting. We, however, do not endorse it,” Vice Chancellor of the University Sushanta Dutta Gupta said.

Ms. Poddar has been removed from active duty. Asked about the arrest of the parents, the university authorities said they had only informed the police about the attack on the warden. It was the police who took follow-up action.

In a related development, a group of lawyers filed a Public Interest Litigation petition at the Calcutta High Court seeking action against those who had violated the rules framed by the Court on corporal punishment.