Class 6 girl dies, parents allege ‘made to do 100 sit-ups as punishment by teacher’

The school education department has initiated an inquiry into the incident by the local education officer. Calling the incident very tragic, Vasai’s education officer Sonali Matekar told The Indian Express that a team was sent to the school on Saturday to conduct a primary inquiry.

“As per their report, a few students of the school were made to do sit-ups as punishment for being late to school on November 8 by a tecaher named Mamta Yadav. The primary inquiry report has been submitted to the school education department. A committee is going to conduct a more detailed inquiry following which strict action will be taken. Corporal punishment is prohibited under law and schools along with teachers have been made aware of it time and again,” Matekar said.

The local Waliv police have lodged an accidental death report in the matter. “We are awaiting the postmortem report and the school education department inquiry report based on which further course of action will be decided,” a police officer said.

Parents of students who were “punished” alleged the teacher asked them to do 100 sit-ups and their wards did over 90 sit-ups.

The students were taken to class later. However, as per the parents, Anshika, who was reportedly suffering from a pre-existing medical condition, was feeling unwell and fell asleep after reaching home.

Later in the day, when her condition worsened and she had difficulty breathing, she was rushed to a local hospital. When her condition did not improve, she was transferred to Mumbai’s JJ hospital. Police said she passed away on Friday night.

Parents along with functionaries of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) went to the school on Saturday and demanded action against the teacher.