Editorial
Corporal punishment taken to new heights
Institutional intervention called for
When we are greeted with horrific pictures of young girls taken to task by none other than their Principal who, in the name of meting out punishment for failing to complete the task of praying regularly during the holidays, gives them a 'taste of hell' by branding them with a hot poker; we are literally at a loss for words! The incident that occurred at an all girls madrassa at Namashyampur in the capital city's Kadamtali area is not the first of its kind to be reported, nor is it likely to be the last.
Whether we like it or not, such medieval forms of punishment are indeed part-and-parcel of disciplinary action that is regularly handed down on students in some madrassas. Many an incident go unreported, the ones that do make the headlines is where the victim could not keep silent about the torture. It is torture in one form or another that defies logic as to how such gross violations of child rights can be inflicted on children by monsters in human form! Hence it makes sense to the Principal as she landed the hot end of the poker on her victims explaining that they must experience firsthand, how it will feel when they face the 'fires of hell' for sins committed on earth.
There is serious need to review the working of such institutes. Do teachers hired to teach students have the requisite skills, and also possess the right psychological makeup? The brutality of 'corporal punishment' and the causes for these need to be identified and addressed without further delay, if we wish these horrendous incidents to cease.
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