Source: Principal Held for School Corporal Punishment Case

KOLKATA, INDIA, October 5, 2010: In the first arrests of its kind in the country, police in Kolkata on Monday picked up the principal of the city’s famous 175-year-old La Martiniere for Boys School and three other teachers and booked them for handing out corporal punishment to a student, who later committed suicide. Sunirmal Chakravarthy and the three others were later freed on bail by a city court. Before making the arrests, investigators recorded the testimony of 82 witnesses, mostly students, teachers and parents.

Corporal punishment was declared illegal by the Supreme Court in 2000 and the government has repeatedly said beating kids in schools had no place in a teaching system focussed on reducing stress and enhancing analytical skills.

As the government has dithered on enacting a specific law, teachers have continued to lean on the cane to get the lessons through.