Teacher arrested for giving electric shocks to kids

OUT ON BAIL: Sumant Mishra allegedly gave electric shocks to 22 school students.

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New Delhi: A teacher in Bhusaval in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district has been arrested for using electric shocks to discipline his students.

Sumant Mishra gave 22 students mild shocks using equipment in the physics laboratory at the school because they were not paying attention in class. Mishra was arrested on Monday but was released on bail.

"Our information is that Mishra administered the shocks with an eliminator available in the physics laboratory. Though no student was seriously injured, the incident has horrified and scared the students," Jalgaon DSP Shantaram Waghmare told The Times of India.

Newspapers report Mishra used an eliminator to give shocks to 22 Class VIII and IX students one by one a week ago because he thought they were not paying attention.

The shocks were mild but the students were traumatised and complained to their parents.

The Supreme Court banned corporal punishment in 2000 but reports of brutal and humiliating ‘disciplining’ of children in the country are frequent.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), too, protects children from all forms of physical violence (Article 19) and from inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment (Article 37). India is a signatory to the UNCRC.