Schools of torture

583 cases of corporal punishments in AP schools since January 1

Statistics available with the APBHS show that over 1,500 corporal punishment cases were booked in 2013

In a bizarre incident, at St Peter’s School of Secunderabad, students were subjected to child labour and were asked to clean up the ground and school premises ahead of Sankranti festival. A case was registered and the matter is pending before the Child Welfare Committee. In another incident, three children - Om Yadav (class 3), Vainayai Yadav (class 6) and Gowri Yadav (class 7) of the Gowtham Model School, Himayatnagar, were locked up in a dark room in the school from 1pm to 4pm for not paying their fees. Upon inspection, the DEO issued a notice to the school and a police case was also registered.

Hardly a month into the New Year, a whopping 583 cases of corporal punishment in schools have been booked under the Greater Hyderabad limits. That’s the claim made by the Andhra Pradesh Balala Hakkula Sangham (APBHS). The APBHS said that all these cases of corporal punishment had been brought to the notice of the city police and the cases registered. In 2013, according to the APBHS, over 1,500 cases were registered under the Greater Hyderabad limits. Despite a ban on corporal punishment in all schools and a mandatory rule to follow the guidelines set under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, several incidents of child rights’ abuse, many of them severe, have come to light in the last few months.

Tuition centres and physical education trainers form a major portion of complaints of physical harassment and mental torture. Activists cry foul against the injustice meted out to children. While corporal punishment at schools poses a major threat, according to them, other forms of violence against children too are most prevalent. “A Child Rights Commission (CRC) in the state is long overdue. At an event of violation of child rights, we have to run to either police, Child Labour Department, Juvenile Justice Board, Education Department, Women and Child Welfare, etc. A CRC would be one common platform to address all issues,” says Achyuta Rao, president, APBHS.

Chiranjeevi Chaudary, Commissioner, Women and Child Welfare, called for increased level of awareness. “Mindset of the people has to change. A teacher has to preach and demonstrate to students first, instead of taking harsh actions for their mistakes,” he said.

Achyuta Rao says that the most brutal harassment takes place at tuition centres. “There are more than 25,000 tuition centres in Greater Hyderabad which have no legality according to the law. Even after a High Court order against the running of schools after 4.30 pm, the tuition centres force children to study after stipulated school hours. In one of the incidents in Ramanthapur a couple of weeks ago, a tuition teacher was booked for beating up a student black and blue,” he said.