Ashwin made me realise the first thing in the morning, that I haven’t had a glimpse of the newspaper for a week now. Since it had been a typical saturday of lazing around, I made an unwilling, yet a deliberate attempt to pick the paper. The first article that caught my eye was “corporal punisment kills Delhi schoolgirl”. A class 2 student from Delhi, shanno, isn’t anymore, for, she wasn’t able to recite the full english alphabet string. And, it is to be noted that, corporal punishment, is banned in India. Isn’t it shocking(read it as barbaric) that the very people, we entrust our children’s education with, can actually almost kill them?
I get a feeling of mixed emotions, sadness,outrage and helplessness whenever I hear about premature,undeserving deaths. It’s just not their time yet. She is such a small kid! It might sound plain sardonic to make a fuss over this issue, and if that’s the case, you don’t have to read on.
And, I have never penned down till date an article on any social issue. I have always known that am bad in putting forth my views, as I am not a strong opinionated person. Neverthless, I wanted to give this a shot, becuase, I strongly believe that there can never be any justification for torture or for cruel treatment.
Corporal punishment, according to me, is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is the premeditated and cold-blooded treating of a fellow human being (when it is a child, the effects are adverse) in the name of justice. Violating the right to live their life to someone, is the most inhuman thing to do.
The effects on children, are needless to say, the most degrading.They will lose trust in the adults who administer the punishment. They tend to learn that force is an acceptable factor in human interaction.They feel humiliated and lose self-respect; and they build up resentment that cannot be resolved at the time but may lead to severe misbehaviour in the future.
Corporal punishment signals to the child that a way to settle interpersonal conflicts is to use physical force and inflict pain. They may also fail to develop trusting, secure relationships with adults and fail to evolve the necessary skills to settle disputes or wield authority in less violent ways.
The incident, just goes to show that we still have a long way to go, to try and ensure that good quality professionals enter the teaching profession – instead of it being a ‘last resort’ , that it has become!
My sincere prayers for her soul to rest in peace.
And shanno, I really love your name! 😦
Hi Abi. I also read the news in the morning and was very upset the whole morning. But I am not totally against corporal punishment bcoz some of the kids these days are too adamant to listen and stuff. But corporal punishment should be reserved for hooligans(not kids).
yes..
the first thing in the morning.. made me feel sick to the stomach!!
very sorry for Shanno’s family!! May Shanno’s soul rest in peace!
Sad but true..Cant deny..live wie it..Btw this is Rohit..strikes a chord..dunno how I landed to your blog but maybe that is Destiny..wie a capital D..
Great blog, I’ll spread the word.
Good to see you writing on all this. But also think about why people still stick to this. Are all teachers really that coldblooded? How could a kid be better handled?
Corporal punishment is something that is more of our reflection, the level of our acceptance for violence and the loss of words that we feel, when we lift up that ruler/or give a tight slap.
Nice of you to so keenly pen down your feeling.
Nicely written… its very sad and unfortunate thing to happen for any child..
But I still remember my school days where i used to get many corporal punishments… But I think some kids like me for an instance need that.. I still remember my parents like many others ask teachers to just leave face and take care of other parts.. 😛
But to what extent is no one knows or no one can draw a line… so teachers need to be more cautious… and slapping and asking the child to stand under sun should be stopped… and a kid SHOULD not be punished for not learning… Kid should be punished only for attitude and other stuffs…