Subiksha, 7, a class three girl studying in a private school in Erode, was interested in singing and drawing landscapes. She was a very active child and talkative and so was a ‘problem’ to her teachers.
They decided to teach her ‘lesson’.
They told Subiksha to sit on the floor in class while all the other children took their seats on the bench. She has been sitting on the floor for a month, ever since the school started. She shared her harrowing experience in the classroom with Deccan Chronicle.
Subiksha: I feel depressed now. I am not interested in listening to the classes. All my friends are sitting on the bench. I am not feeling good in school. I am ashamed.
My mother is a teacher. She works in a different school. My father is a manager in a private spinning mill. I will leave for school at 8 am and return home at 4 pm and I will be all alone at home.
My mother will return at 6pm and will be busy with her tuitions. My father will be dead tired as he enters the house at 9pm.
I have seen all the cartoon programmes and they are now boring. There are children in my neigbours' houses but their parents do not allow their kids to come out and play in the ground.
I am lonely and feeling bored. I get to talk to others only when I am in school. But now I have stopped talking there because of the punishment.
I saw one of my classmates was beaten up for playing during the interval in the classroom. Last week, a class four ‘anna’ was hit badly for touching the board.
At least one from each class would visit the principal or senior teacher for being 'indisciplined' - like talking to others, playing and laughing and for not completing the homework. Going to school is not so pleasant for me.