Karnataka: Corporal punishment for minor Dalit students takes ugly turn

In a shocking incident, over half a dozen students of a government residential school in Karnataka were forced to clean a septic tank and kneel on their knees, with heavy school bags on their back and hands raised, on the school campus.

The dehumanising act of the administrators of the Morarji Desai Residential School in Yaluvahalli at Malur taluk of Kolar district came to light after two videos shot by a teacher surfaced on social media and went viral.

In one of the videos, the Dalit students are seen working in the septic tank in the presence of the school principal and a teacher. In the other video, they can be seen kneeling on their knees with their school bags on their backs and hands raised. In the same video, one schoolboy is seen fighting for breath, while others of the lot are helping him with water.

The hapless children, studying in Class VII and IX, are also heard discussing their travails of punishment and physical abuse they have to endure at the school.

Public outrage

As soon as the shocking videos went viral, the incident led to public outrage forcing the Siddaramaiah-led state government to swing into action. “I have come to know about the incident and I have sought a report. Will take strict action based on the report,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was quoted as saying in media reports.

The state government immediately suspended Principal Bharathamma, teachers Muniyappa and Abhishek, and hostel warden Manjunath. Four contractual staff have also been sacked. Social Welfare Minister HC Mahadevappa in his suspension order said, “A responsible organisation can’t employ children for such work. It is highly condemnable. As soon as I came to know about this, I suspended the principal, warden and other officials.”

Principal Bharatamma and teacher Muniyappa were arrested on Monday (December 18), even as various authorities did the rounds of the Morarji Desai Residential School to conduct inspection. Social Welfare Department officials, who visited the school, found the teachers of the school handing out physical punishment to the students.

State Legal Services Authority chairman Sunil Hosmani, executive director of Karnataka Residential Education Institutions Society (KRIES) Naveen Kumar Raju, and Social Welfare Department Joint Director R Srinivas visited the school to conduct inspection and have stated to initiate action against the school staff. “I have visited the school and recommended disciplinary action against erring school staff,” Srinivas was quoted as saying.

Political slugfest

As usual, the abhorring incident has sparked a war of words with the BJP taking the lead in cornering the Congress government over the “heinous incident”.

“It is an alarming development that people belonging to SC communities are being subjected to violence and exploitation. Malur incident where children were subjected to physical abuse by putting them in a pit of faeces is a very heinous incident. The Karnataka BJP strongly condemns it…,” state BJP chief BY Vijayendra wrote in a social media post on X. He also demanded that minister Mahadevappa should resign on moral grounds.

Not a solitary incident

However, the Morarji Desai Residential School incident is not an exception however abhorring it might be. There have been scores of incidents in recent years where Dalits students have been subjected to such humiliating experiences.

In December 2022, a woman principal, Geetha Rani, of a government school of Erode district in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, forced six Dalit students to clean toilets. Two years before this incident, a woman professor of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Uttar Pradesh forced two Dalit PhD scholars to clean a toilet while passing caste epithets at them.

These are just two incidents to illustrate the attitude of the teachers and school administrators toward their Dalit wards and the humiliation they heap on them.