Corporal punishment or the use of aggression for disciplinary purposes can lead to grievous hurt and trauma on the child for a long term. On February 12,2010 Rouvanjeet Rawla , a thirteen year old class eighth student committed suicide after being caned by the Principal. Although the principal was arrested but couldn’t be booked as the charges were not prude. According to Dr. JM Wadhawan , a psychiatrist at Ganga Ram Hospital said,”Physical punishment is not the way to correct a child as it can result in school phobia and low confidence level. A child who gets beaten up once is even scared to ask a simple question. Everyday the incidents related to corporal punishment are shown on TV or written in newspapers indicating that these leave a deep impact on mental health of a child. Sometimes they even become handicapped. This harsh punishment is given for some pranks in the class , cheating , telling lies breaking rules , distracting and intentionally irritating the teachers. There are students who don’t study and doesn’t let the others study as well. They retard the growth of the class and thus receive corporal punishment in the form of slap , pulling ears , pinching or being hit with a stick. Sometimes the teachers have to resort to it when the nuisance value of the child exceeds its limit. But the result is that the students start hating their teachers , get indifferent towards studies and their grades show a downward trend. Continuous beating can sometimes maim them for life. Study shows that 77% teachers who give physical punishment themselves got it when they were in school. The stress in their family life and overload of work are other factors. The weak teachers or incompetent can’t control their class so they let out the frustration and anger on the students. So keeping all these points in mind , we should not mollycoddle the child and always keep him in cocoon. There is no harm in raising our hand once in a while to discipline the child but we should not resort to it. We should understand the psychology of a children and handle them carefully with incentives as we are aiming for their betterment.

SO LET SCHOOL BE A SCHOOL , NOT A REFINED PRISON