A school teacher in Ahmedabad has been detained by the police after a video of him ruthlessly beating a student in front of his classmates went viral. Abhishek Patel, who used to teach mathematics at the Madhav Public School in Vatva, has also been suspended.
Patel twisted the arm of a student and pulled him by his hair, before slamming him against the wall, showed CCTV footage from the classroom. He also slapped the minor nearly a dozen times and pushed him to the ground.
After the video went viral, the District Education Officer issued a notice to the school’s principal and ordered the teacher’s suspension.
Patel has also been taken into custody by Vatva police and legal action are being taken against him.
Corporal punishment is illegal in India, but the practice of using physical punishment remains a widely used tool by teachers to discipline children in schools across the country.
The Supreme Court had in 2000 banned the use of corporal punishment in all educational institutions.
In a recent such hearing, the Chhattisgarh High Court said the use of physical violence to discipline a child in school was cruel and violated the child’s right to life guaranteed by Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.
The Right to Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 also makes corporal punishment in schools a punishable offense. It is also illegal under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015.
