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Call for national debate on corporal punishment to school children

JAIPUR: The Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Shantha Sinha, has expressed concern over growing incidences of corporal punishment of children in schools as well as other child abuses including child labour in the country. Not a day passes without newspapers reporting yet another case of a major violation of child rights in schools, she lamented.

“We have collected a large number of such cases for initiating a national level debate on the subject,” said Prof. Sinha, who met journalists here on Friday, reacting to the shocking incident in Udaipur in which a Class XII student died a day before allegedly due to the beating he received from his school teacher a week ago. “It is shocking. Even private schools are reporting such incidents,” she noted.

“We are presently holding talks with NCERT to involve teachers on child rights awareness,” Prof. Sinha who attended a “Jan sunwai” (public hearing) on child labour in south Rajasthan organised by Dakshini Rajasthan Mazdoor Sangh here during the day, said. “The issue of corporal punishment needs a national debate. There is much ignorance on the topic at present,” she said.

Prof. Sinha said NCPCR, set up in March this year after the passage of a Bill in 2006, was seized of the problem of child labour. While the country has the maximum number of child labour, the States of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh account for maximum number of children working. Children deployed in the Bt. cotton fields in the neighbouring Gujarat form a new exploited group in Rajasthan.

Prof. Sinha, who just returned from a visit to Dungarpur district in south Rajasthan from where children are smuggled to Gujarat for work in cotton fields, said she came across reports of schools remaining closed during the season—from July to October--due to the absence of students. There were also reports of half a dozen children dying while working in the fields, she observed.

Citing the studies conducted by Ashok Khandelwal of Dakshini Rajasthan Mazdoor Union, Prof. Sinha said during the flowering season of Bt.cotton, 2.5 lakh labourers were needed in Gujarat. The area under Bt. Cotton seed production in Gujarat at present was about 25000 acres and each acre needed 10 labourers. “It is estimated that 90 per cent of those employed here are below 18 years. Out of this, 45 per cent are below 14 years. About 45 per cent of the workers are girls,” she noted.

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Call for national debate on corporal punishment to school children

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