Hyderabad: A nine-year-old girl was the alleged victim of abuse at St Stephens High School, Ranga Reddy district. Little Manogna was severely punished for what seemed like a mild transgression. Manisha, the teacher at the school, reportedly cut the child’s hair warning her sternly that she must wear black ribbons as per the school’s policy. It must have been traumatic for a child to be forced to watch her hair being snipped, unable to stop a higher authority from violating her personal space and well being.
Corporal punishment is now slowly being replaced by what is called ‘school disciplining’, a form of disciplinary action on children who for mild levels of so-called misconduct incidents, are punished. A growing concept of uniform-related school disciplining has been noticed in the city. While uniforms were issued for the sake of unity and equality, it is now the cause of discrimination in schools. Similar incidents around the city have begun to crop up, in regard to incidents where children are being punished for their hairstyle or lack of an uniform accessory.
While one can argue that following rules is an essential tool to teach children to adhere to society’s rules and regulations, there are boundaries where punishment crosses over to become a form of mental, emotional or physical abuse.
Agreeing, Child Activist, Achyuta Rao, president of Balala Hakkula Sangham, stated, “A similar incident took place at the Oxford Grammar school, Himayatnagar, where a child was beaten for coming to school with her hair in a ponytail. There is no hard and fast rule for uniforms or uniform accessories to be a necessary aspect of dispensing education and thus, the grounds for such inhuman physical or verbal abuse is unwarranted and extraneous”.
