Teacher Booked for Assaulting Student at Rohru School

A fresh case of corporal punishment has emerged in Himachal Pradesh’s Rohru subdivision, just days after a video surfaced showing a teacher assaulting a student with a thorny bush.

An FIR has been registered under relevant sections of the IPC and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against a teacher at the Government Primary School in Bhaloon village for allegedly inflicting severe physical punishment on a Class 1 student.

According to the complaint filed by the child’s father, Durga Singh, a teacher named Nitish Thakur beat his son so badly that the boy’s ear began to bleed, leading to partial hearing loss. Singh further alleged that the teacher inserted stinging nettle (bichhoo booti) into the child’s pants to further torment him.

The complainant also claimed that the accused teacher teaches in place of his wife, who is the actual appointed teacher at the school. He further alleged that the teacher practices caste-based discrimination, making upper-caste students sit separately from Dalit and Nepali students during the midday meal.

Durga Singh also alleged that the school’s headmistress threatened to expel his son if the matter was reported anywhere. The complaint adds that the headmistress, along with another teacher, visited the family’s home to pressure them into not lodging a police complaint and to suppress the incident.

Taking cognizance of the case, the Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch has demanded the immediate arrest of the accused teacher. The group has also urged the education department to take disciplinary action against the teacher’s wife, who allegedly allows her husband to teach in her place.