Eastern India’s most respected day school and voted third nationally in the Education-World-C fore Survey of India’s Most Respected Schools 2009, La Martiniere Boys School, Kolkata (estb. 1836) has hit the national headlines for all the wrong reasons.
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The reputation of the 174-year-old school has plunged precipitously into a full-blown crisis following the suicide of Rouvanjit Rawal (13), a class VIII student of the school who committed suicide at home on February 12. The tragic suicide blew up in a national cause celebre when the pupil’s hand-written diary was discovered several months later. In the diary, Rouvanjit had recorded that he had been “humiliated” after being caned and berated on February 8 “in front of the class” by the school’s prin-cipal Sunirmal Chakravarthy.
Rouvanjit’s offence was that he dropped two “stink bombs” in class. Friends-cum-accom-plices were told by the prin-cipal that they would each be given two whacks. “Rouvanjit was mildly struck twice with an old and frail cane,” admits Chakravarthy.
Surprisingly, despite the school’s front-rank status, Chakravarthy was unaware that corporal punishment for all schools was banned by the Calcutta high court in a land-mark judgement of February 6, 2004. However, the ban has been practiced more in the breach than observance in West Bengal (pop. 80 million).
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On May 14, 2009 during a court hearing following the untimely death of Babli Ghosh (11), a student of the government-aided Andal Girls High School, Durgapur who was hit on the head with a duster, high court lawyer Tapas Bhanja alleged that the state government’s education department failed and neglected to issue a notification to school managements informing them that corporal punish-ment had been outlawed by the Calcutta high court by its 2004 judgement. “Not a single school is aware of the ban,” Bhanja informed the Calcutta high court last year. Quite obviously despite the court reissuing directions to publicise the 2004 judgement, the Communist Party of India Marxist-led Left Front government failed to do so.
According to Chakravarthy, formal caning is an old tradition of La Marti-niere and necessary to discipline such a huge number of students. “In a school of 3,000 students, how else do you propose to discipline those who can’t be dealt with through milder measures? I am open to suggestions,” he says.
Quite obviously, the school’s board of governors presided over by the Rt. Rev. Ashok Biswas, Bishop of Calcutta, seems to be of the opinion that long-established disciplining traditions should not be lightly set aside. “There are times when children need to be corrected and helped. The idea has always been to inculcate a sense of values in them. It is also important for the school to ensure that there is an environment conducive to learning and often corrective measures have to be taken to ensure this environment,” said the bishop in an official statement dated June 11.
But following the nationwide outcry over Rouvanjit’s suicide, the bishop and the board have revised their points of view. At a meeting of all CNI (Church of North India) school principals convened in mid-June, Biswas directed all CNI schools — including La Martiniere Boys — to administer more “humane punishments” to students.
Meanwhile caning of students despite being an age-old tradition, has according to Chakravarthy been “archived”. But despite heavy pressure from the media — particularly the English language news television channels competing for middle-class eyeballs — Chakravarthy has refused to step down pending investigation into Rouvanjit’s suicide. And unsurprisingly, the La Martiniere Alumni Association (LMAA) has rallied behind the beleaguered Chakravarthy. The association is not convinced that there is a direct linkage between the caning administered to Rouvanjit on February 8 and his tragic suicide four days later. “There are deeper causes behind Rouvanjit’s suicide,” says a LMAA member who preferred to remain anonymous.
If indeed there are deeper causes, they will manifest soon enough. Currently a committee of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights and the Kolkata police are investigating the mystery of the suicide of this young boy who seemed to have everything going for him.
Sujoy Gupta (Kolkata)