No caning of schoolchildren

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, DEC. 1. Good news for the Capital's school children. They will no more be caned or slapped by their teachers in classrooms. Thanks to the Delhi High Court, the stick-wielding class of teachers will soon vanish. They will be spared the rod.

Coming forward in defence of their right to have education with dignity and in a liberal environment, the Delhi High Court today ruled that corporal punishment is violative of their fundamental rights to equality before law and the life and personal liberty as well the Directive Principles of State Policy of the Constitution.

A Division Bench comprising Mr. Justice Anil Dev Singh and Mr. Justice M.K. Sharma allowed a public interest litigation seeking abolition of the provision for corporal punishment to school children in the Delhi School Education Rules (DSER), 1973.

The bench struck down Rule 37 of the DSER which provided for physical punishment to school children by the principal of a school.

The Bench directed the Delhi Government to ensure that children are not subjected to corporal punishment in schools and they receive education in an environment of freedom and dignity, free from fear.

Surprisingly, the Union as well as the Delhi Governments justified the provision for physical punishment taking the plea that it was in the interests of child to inculcate discipline, and not violative of any Constitutional provisions.

The Bench heard and decided the petitioner's plea for a ban on caning in the light of the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by the UN General Assembly, the National Policy on Education and Articles 14 (Equality before law), 21 (Protection of life and personal liberty) and 39 (Directive Principles of State Policy).

The UN Convention, to which India is a signatory, as well the National Policy on Education are against corporal punishment and for its eradication from schools. It is also not in consonance with the right to life of a child, the Bench ruled.

``Rights to a life of dignity, freedom from arbitrary and despotic control, torture and terror and protection against cruelty, physical or mental violence, injury or abuse and exploitation, including sexual abuse-- are all available to the child and he cannot be deprived of them just because he is small. Being small does not make him a lesser human being than a grown- up,'' the Bench stated.

``It also appears that corporal punishment is not in keeping with children's dignity, Besides, it is cruel to subject them to physical violence in schools in the name of discipline or education,'' the Bench observed.

It further said that studies had shown that beating of children had resulted in undesirable effects. They became withdrawn and exhibited anti-social behaviour.

``Children who are ruled by the rod in schools may acquire disdain and hatred for their teachers. Beating affects their concentration in studies and leads to development of fear psychosis towards learning,'' the Bench stated.

On the official plea for continuing with mild corporal punishment to keep children's impudent behaviour under check, the Bench said that it defeated the very purpose for which it was applied.

``Brutal treatment of children can never inculcate discipline in them and obedience exacted by striking fear of punishment can make them adopt the same tactics when they grows up for getting what they want,'' the Bench said.

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