When Alisha*, a resident of R.K. Nagar, went to pick up her six-year-old daughter Reshma* from school on Wednesday, she found her daughter standing in a corner of her classroom, crying. With some coaxing, the child admitted to being hit by her teacher.
Reshma is a UKG student of Seethakathi Matriculation Higher Secondary School, close to her home. She is the eldest daughter of Khader*, a tailor and Alisha, a homemaker. “My daughter usually comes running to me when I go to pick her up around 4 p.m. But on Wednesday, she was crying. When I asked her why, she told me that the teacher, Fathima, had hit her with a stick. There was a black streak on her left thigh and hips and there was a blood clot too. The teacher also agreed that she had hit the child as she did not write properly,” said Alisha, speaking to The Hindu .
She informed her husband about the incident. “We rushed her to the doctor and he told us that she would find sitting down highly uncomfortable for a few days. As we could not approach anyone at night, we lodged a complaint with the R.K. Nagar police station,” said Khader.
On Thursday morning, Khader and some of his family members approached the school administration and demanded that the teacher be dismissed. “My daughter is a bit slow in learning. But we have never put any pressure on the teachers to ensure that she studies well. Besides, they could have chided her instead of hitting her,” said Khader.
Meanwhile, the school principal said he had terminated the services of the teacher.
“Earlier too, we have dismissed teachers for being involved in corporal punishment. However, when we asked the teacher, she said the child’s parents had instructed her to punish the child to make her study. But she should not have listened to them,” the principal said.
(*Names changed on request)
