Corporal punishment in schools has been banned in India since 2010.
Despite the ban such punishment keeps taking place with tragic consequences which get reported in our press and there just does not seem to be any end to it. If anything the brutality seems to be increasing. Untrained teachers, money making schools more interested in quantity over quality catering to two income households who are only too happy to see the children being disciplined in schools and many other sociological factors play their respective roles in this mess. The latest instance to hit the headlines shows how totally unqualified persons become teachers for want of alternative sources of income,
My views on this subject have been very clearly and unambiguously brought out in my post Corporal Punishment And Mr. Kuruvilla jacob that I wrote around the time that the punishment was banned in India.
I have not changed my views but am pleased to see many young parents from among my friends and relatives approaching child rearing in a holistic manner where it is unlikely that their children will face tragic consequences of corporal punishment.
Ashok who has suggested this topic is a young socially conscious activist lawyer who is doing a lot of good work in this and other related areas and it is to be hoped that such initiatives from the non government sectors will bring about the massive holistic changes that will be needed in the total country. I doubt that merely legislating on the subject will bring about any meaningful change.
I hope that you enjoyed reading my take on this subject which was chosen by Ashok for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where five of us write on the same topic. The four other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Ashok, gaelikaa, Maxi, and Shackman. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too!