Mumbai:
As the suicide case of 13-year-old student Ruwanjit Rawla allegedly because of teachers' brutality returns to the headlines, the debate over corporal punishment heats up in our classrooms.
Anay told NDTV, ''If teachers don't hit students, they will not behave properly.'' But he was clearly in a minority. Most students felt that the days of kneeling outside the classroom and caning are passé.
''It's like torture'', said another teenager. His classmate Savio agreed. "They say we are the future of tomorrow. If we are treated badly by the teachers, we will also treat them in the same manner, won't we?"
''It's embarrassing if a teacher singles us out." Naturally, when we asked the students if caning or hitting students is right, pat came the reply, in chorus - a vehement 'No'.
Even two decades ago most of us have got the occasional whack on the back or a rap on the knuckles from our teachers. It was considered a good dose of discipline.
''Today children are very, very sensitive," says Father (Dr.) Francis Swamy, Principal of Holy Family High School. "They are not as strong as they used to be earlier. Earlier you could hit a child and he would still smile. Today if you call a child 'stupid', he may not have his meal.''
Many teachers are against corporal punishment. They say stringent action inevitably makes one lose his position as an able teacher.
It also puts a question mark on the school and the security it offers.
But out of the walls of a handful school where corporal punishments are banned are thousands others... that have no such policy.
Faced with too many students, monotony, lack of incentives and a fair share of unruly students, teachers have been seen to lose their cool.
Avnita Bir, Principal of R. N. Podar School feels, ''It's very important to take parents along with you in any action that you take. You can involve a counsellor. It's important to have a conversation but with the child as the focus. We need to make sure that the child is not feeling threatened.''
The age old saying of 'spare the rod and spoil the child' is being turned on its head. And though teachers, parents and students feel that discipline is important they say it cannot come at the cost of the child's well being.