The Hindu : Front Page : Violence: Children seek State intervention

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Sunday, Mar 11, 2007
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Violence: Children seek State intervention

P. Sudhakar

UP IN ARMS: Schoolchildren at the Tirunelveli Collectorate. — Photo: A. Shaikmohideen

TIRUNELVELI: In an attempt to put an end to corporal punishment in schools, and ill treatment meted out to children in the society, a group of children descended on the Collectorate here on Saturday with a petition, seeking the Collector's intervention.

They also urged the officials not to involve them in awareness rallies "being conducted frequently by the official machinery under a hot sun."

The children said a section of the society and some of the teachers either abused or meted out corporal punishment that left indelible scar in the victims' psyche. People who were actually involved in atrocities against children were moving around freely and indulged in more such uncivilised acts even as the victims were undergoing mental agony, they said.

"Even after police complaints were registered in some of the cases, no one was arrested in the district, which should not continue," said M. Bharathan, general secretary of `Arivu Kalanjiyam Vaasippu Iyakkam' (Arivu Kalanjiyam Reading Movement), who accompanied the children.

Though it was a holiday for Government offices, the 150-odd children submitted the petition to the Collector's personal assistant, P. Anbazhagan. It demanded action against teachers and correspondents, who allegedly "assaulted" S. Selvaraj, a Plus Two student of Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School, Mela Ilanthaikulam, Vijayakumar of Reddiyarpatti Government Higher Secondary School, and Krishnaveni of St. Antony's Higher Secondary School, Veerakeralamputhur.

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