Last week, six-year-old Mustakeem Ahmed learned what it feels like to be forgotten. Chances are he'll always remember the lesson. Having fallen asleep in class while at school, he woke to a dark, locked room. The school building was deserted and nobody heard his cries. He spent the night alone with his hunger and fear, trying to make his supply of water last, and was found only the next morning when the school gates were opened. Now he's terrified of going back.
This is not the first case of such neglect in Indian schools. It's fairly symptomatic of our larger attitudes of dismissal towards children, our dismal apathy towards their rights. Consider the fact that corporal punishment is devastatingly common in our schools and homes; neglect is only a rung lower on the same continuum.
According to a 2007 joint-study by Unicef, Save the Children and the Indian government, 65% of school-going children have faced corporal punishment. Beating children with rulers, forcing them to stand for hours, throwing blackboard dusters at them – all of these are considered effective punishment in many of India's schools. Usually such acts lead to physical or psychological damage. Sometimes, they kill.
A supreme court ban on corporal punishment has been implemented in only 17 of 28 states. Policing such a ban is difficult and as Shanta Sinha, chairperson of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, points out, most children do not report or confide abuse. They fear they may not be believed, and even when children do complain, parents often feel powerless. While the wealthy are able to demand better treatment for their kids, the poor are often grateful to be able to send their children to school at all. They are reluctant to bring up problems, unsure of protest mechanisms, and fearful of further victimisation.
Child rights activists have been fighting for better legislation against corporal punishment but the other significant apex of this is the teachers. Teachers in government schools in India are usually underpaid, overworked and frustrated, constantly battling abysmal salaries and short contracts, dealing with difficult children without adequate training or support. In problematic situations, they turn to default solutions that have been in use for decades (the ever-popular "spare the rod and spoil the child" maxim).
Hardship and frustration can make beasts of ordinary people, causing them to react violently because they fear a lack of alternatives. Large groups of students can sometimes get unruly but corporal punishment is neither inevitable, nor necessary. There is an urgent need for educated discussion on alternative ways of coping with children. What are acceptable disciplinary measures? Faced with a difficult, unruly or violent child, what should a teacher do? What is the roster of methods that the teacher can draw on in such circumstances?
Experts have stressed that teacher training and skills upgrading is an important part of India's education reform needs and it is vital that such training address these questions.
We also need to look at ways of helping teachers with their personal deficiencies or diffidence. Besides being an outlet for built-up aggression, violence is often the last resort of the weak or cowed person. More confident teachers who are surer of their jobs, their lives, and themselves are the crucial piece in this puzzle. Because work conditions in poorer schools (often in remote or rural areas) are strenuous or demanding, they need ways to cope with work-related conflict or stress. Counselling or free helplines may be effective.
While legislation and policing of corporal punishment need to develop teeth, even that may not be enough. It's important that we imbibe a different attitude towards children and their needs, start putting them front and centre, and start investing in the systems and people dedicated to their care. Until then, our children will continue to be abused, beaten, or just simply, forgotten.