Broken stick: Tamil Nadu bans corporal punishment

Protests from parents, the public and activists had prompted the government to order the deletion of Rule 51, an official statement said. It had also been brought to the notice of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi that some 8220;sensitive8217;8217; students were driven to commit suicide after being subjected to corporal punishment.

The statement said that while Rule 51 permitted corporal punishment for students 8220;caught lying or using obscene language8221;, there have been several recent incidents in which students were meted out excessive punishment.

Aa per Rule 51,8221;Corporal punishment shall not be inflicted, except in a case of moral delinquency such as deliberate lying, obscenity of word or act or flagrant insubordination, and it shall be limited to six cuts on the hand and administered only by or under the supervision of the headmaster.8217;8217;

In June 2003, a class 10 student, Ram Abhinav, committed suicide in Chennai after he was beaten up by his teacher. Abhinav had not attended school on his birthday and had been punished by the teacher the next day. He left a suicide note saying he was 8220;afraid of going to school again8221;.

The State Human Rights Commission took up the issue. The government had then warned the schools against corporal punishment.

The Committee headed by former director of School Education, A Muthukrishnan, had been set up during the previous AIADMK regime. In its 300-page report submitted in 2004, the six-member committee was unanimous in its view that Rule 51 should go.

It suggested that instead a child should be given the right to choose the form of punishment, be it cleaning the class-board or gardening or keeping away from a literary activity that he or she is keen, said A Pandian, ex-district education officer and a panel member.