Corporal punishment: NHRC issues notices to AP, MP govts

New Delhi: National Human Rights Commission on Tuesday issued notices to Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh governments in separate cases of corporal punishment and asked them to submit reports within four weeks.

The issuance of notices came following NHRC taking cognisance of media reports about "brutal treatment" meted to school going boys by their teachers in the two states. In one of the cases, a nine-year-old student of Ushodaya Merit School in Kakinada (AP) suffered injuries when his teacher beat caned him on his left hand for not covering his books properly. Doctors had pronounced the boy`s hand fractured at the same spot where he had suffered a fracture three years ago. A 10-year-old student of a government primary school in MP`s Betul district was beaten up by his two teachers when he failed to satisfy them that he had not broken a bucket in the school. The boy succumbed to serious injuries caused to his backbone and neck, an NHRC statement said quoting media reports. "The Commission has observed that the contents of the press reports, if true, raise the serious issue of violation of human rights of the students," it said. PTI