NEW DELHI, INDIA, February 12 2002: Corporal punishment may well be commonplace in schools, but teachers and academicians in their role as parents, strongly denounce the practice. This is the latest in a series of articles in the Hindustan Times denouncing corporal punishment. Vibha Parthasarthy, ex-principal of Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and ex-president of the National Commission for Women says she has never hit her children. “Punishment should not rob a child of his dignity and instill fear in him or her. I’ve dealt with a lot of stubborn children. Beating them only makes them more stubborn,” she says. Professor A N Maheswari, chairperson of the National Council for Teacher Education, says that he has never beaten his only daughter. “Hitting children is an abominable act because the child cannot retaliate at that time,” he says. On the training imparted to teachers to deal with difficult behavior, he says that dealing with children comes with empathy that comes from one’s cultural values. Dr Samir Parikh, a psychiatrist, says that he would never resort to physical abuse. This kind of punishment is dependent on the discretion of a human being rather than the mistake of a child, he says. Since they are the only ones that do not vote, that explains the apathy towards this issue, he adds.
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