Protect students to ensure education is complete

Even in a country where two out of every three children are ill-treated in school, according to the ministry of women and child welfare development, the latest outrage reported from Shantiniketan seems right out of the pages of a Dickensian novel. As in the fictional portrayals of deranged schoolmasters, a hostel warden in Rabindranath Tagore’s celebrated university town forced a five-year-old girl accused of wetting her bed to lick her own urine.

Although the warden has since been arrested, the question remains about the selection procedure of personnel who are entrusted to look after the children who have to live in an environment far from home. They need to be sensitive to compensate for the loss of parental affection and the sense of domestic security. The hapless child in Shantiniketan suffered a sordid humiliation at the hands of a sadistic warden, which is likely to remain as a scar in her memory and cause long-term psychological damage.

As it is, because of the inadequate pay and the decline in the kind of social prestige teachers and others associated with educational institutions used to enjoy earlier, those who take up these positions are not always capable of discharging responsibilities that involve interacting with children on a daily basis and, in the case of hostels, for 24 hours. The selection boards have to give special attention, therefore, to choose young men and women who not only have the right educational background but are also seen to be temperamentally decent individuals.

That such care is rarely taken is evident from the ministry’s findings that slapping and beating the pupils with sticks, or pulling their hair and ears, and even kicking them are not uncommon. According to UNICEF India, most children do not report these abuses because of the shame involved in such punishments. According to the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, even reputed schools have a ‘culture’ of such ill-treatment.