Tumakuru: Boy thrashed by teacher for not reciting rhyme

TUMAKURU: A Class 1 boy studying at the government higher primary school at Byalya village in Madhugiri taluk was reportedly thrashed by a teacher for not being able to recite an English rhyme. The six-year-old boy, who had slipped into trauma, was admitted to the Government Hospital in Madhugiri on Thursday evening with blisters and bruises on both shoulders and the left thigh. He was discharged after treatment on Friday. According to some classmates of the victim Nandisha, who hail from the same village, after lunch time, the teacher Lalitha asked the boy to recite an English rhyme which she had taught the class some days earlier. When he could not, she got annoyed and started beating the boy with a stick even as he screamed to be let go. After classes, the boy returned home and went to sleep. When he did not wake up for dinner, his mother Sowmya, a widow, woke him up and found that he was in trauma and running high fever. With the help of other villagers, she shifted him to the Government Hospital in Madhugiri. The dalit boy’s father had died some time back and his mother does menial jobs besides hawking some wares in villages to support themselves. Speaking to The New Indian Express over phone, Block Education Officer (BEO) Narasimhaiah admitted that the teacher had indeed thrashed the boy. “I visited the school on Friday and filed a report to the DDPI for further action,” he added. DDPI Ravishankar Reddy could not be reached as he was away in Bengaluru. The teacher Lalitha too hails from the same village and has been working at the school for several years. Source: New Indian Express