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VICTIM SHANNO

‘Teachers have no fear of punishment, always get away’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The 11-year-old student of an MCD school, who slipped into coma on Wednesday after being allegedly beaten and made to stand in the sun for nearly two hours by her teacher for not being able to recite letters of the English alphabet, died on Friday afternoon. Municipal commissioner K S Mehra on Friday instituted a vigilance inquiry into the incident of the reported corporal punishment. He has directed the chief vigilance officer to submit the report within two days. Director (Primary Education) is already conducting a departmental enquiry into the incident.

In a statement, the teacher, Manju — believed to be in Sonepat after the incident — said she had not subjected the girl to any form of corporal punishment.

The police, meanwhile, said that they would be waiting for the post mortem report before sending a team to Sonepat in search of the accused teacher. ‘‘We have registered a case under section 304 (A), (death caused due to negligence). We will go through all reports of the doctors and look at the the previous medical history of the girl before pressing charges,’’ said DCP (outer) Atul Katiyar.

Prominent educationists have demanded a judicial probe into the matter. Shanta Sinha, chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), said: ‘‘This is a case of murder and cases should be registered against the teacher as well as the school. Most teachers think they can get away as there is no fear of punishment. Corporal punishment is prevalent across schools and it needs to be dealt with firmly.’’

Reacting to the incident, mayor Arti Mehra said: ‘‘We have suspended the teacher Manju and the principal, Dhanpati, and on our part have issued directions to hold workshops to sensitize teachers besides issuing a vigilance inquiry. This incident is a step backward for all that we have achieved in terms of imparting good education so far. We are also looking for NGOs’ participation to control this menace.’’ While terming the incident inhuman, Shyama Chona, principal, DPS, R K Puram said all stakeholders should be held responsible for it. ‘‘Not only the accused teacher, but all others including the principal and other teachers should be held responsible because being witnesses to such a incident, they should have intervened.’’

Meanwhile, chief minister Sheila Dikshit said: ‘‘We have to seriously look into the matter since the frequency of corporal punishment has not come down. Whether it is municipality school or anywhere else, such incidents should not be tolerated. Education department has sent an advisory to MCD and if necessary more stringent laws need to be enacted.’’

But stating that MCD has always stood against corporal punishment, Vijender Gupta, chairman, standing committee, MCD, said: ‘‘We have always been against corporal punishment and if the teacher is found guilty in this case, she should be punished.

The law should be enforced more strictly.’’

Social scientists are seeing this as an outcome of lack of any strict guidelines for schools, anomalies in teacher training and teachers conniving to save their peers. They said such incidents were one of the major reasons for dropouts. Ranjana Kumari, director, Centre for Social Research, said: ‘‘There are no strict guidelines. Despite the few rules we have, there is no fear among teachers and they connive to save their peers. Fear factor is one of the reasons for dropouts as well. The International Convention for Child Rights even forbids parents to punish their children. Than how can a teacher touch a child? This is a clear case under section 302 of IPC (murder).’’

toireporter@timesgroup.com



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