Indian girl stripped in class for missing homework
30 Sep 2007 11:27:21 GMT Source: Reuters
(Adds further comment) NEW DELHI, Sept 30 (Reuters) - A seven-year-old girl was made to strip naked by her teacher in a New Delhi school for not completing her homework, a police spokesman said on Sunday. The minor was made to strip completely naked and stand on a desk in her class on Friday while other students were asked to boo her, the officer said. "The teacher was arrested on a complaint by the parents but she has been released as it was a bailable offence," Rajan Bhagat told Reuters over the telephone. "This is barbaric," Shanta Sinha, head of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, said in a newspaper report. "No one has the right to outrage the modesty of a child." The commission had issued a directive this year barring schools from calling students "stupid" or "mindless". A government study backed by the United Nations Children's Fund said earlier this year that two-thirds of children in India are physically abused, mostly at home and in schools. Although banned, corporal punishment is widely used to discipline children in Indian schools. "Violence against children is a very serious thing now," said Kailash Satyarthi of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan or Save the Childhood Movement, which campaigns for children's rights. "The most challenging thing is to change the mindset of the teaching community."
