The Volunteer Who Wants a Child to Stand in the Sun
At a primary school in Kalahandi district, one teacher handles a combined Class I and Class II of 44 children in a single room; a community volunteer comes on two afternoons a week. The teacher runs a 20-minute whole-class session followed by two ability groups. On Tuesday, during group work, a Class II boy, Bikash (8), hit a Class I girl on the head with a wooden slate because she sat on what he calls his mat; she cried for ten minutes and her ear was red. It is the third hitting incident involving Bikash this month. The volunteer says the boy should stand in the sun for an hour without water so that he learns, and two parents who heard about it agree. Bikash lives with his grandmother; his mother works as a migrant labourer in Kerala and returns twice a year. The teacher knows the boy is often hungry by the third period and is one of the weakest readers in Class II.
1. What is your immediate and next-day response, and how do you refuse the sun punishment in a way that the volunteer and parents can accept?
Read the worked answer
In the moment: stop the group work, attend to the injured child first - a cold compress on the ear, a check for dizziness or vomiting - inform the parents of both children the same day, and enter the incident in the school register with time, injury and witnesses. A blow to the head is a health matter before it is a discipline matter.
Next day: speak to Bikash privately. Name the act, not the child: 'Hitting is not allowed here. You were angry about the mat. Next time you say I need a mat, or you come to me.' Rehearse that sentence with him. Give him a chance to repair - fetch water for the girl, apologise - without staging a public performance.
Refusing the punishment: it is prohibited. RTE 2009 Section 17 bans physical punishment and mental harassment, and the NCPCR 2007 guidelines treat making a child stand in the sun without water as physical punishment. It is also unsafe - heat, dehydration, no supervision - and it does not work: it teaches that the strongest person wins, which is precisely the lesson Bikash has already learned.
How to say it: tell the volunteer and the parents plainly that it is not permitted, then immediately offer the alternative, so the refusal reads as a method rather than as softness: 'We are not letting him off. We are teaching him what to do instead, and we will follow it up.' Log the refusal and the alternative in the register.
2. Set out a two-week plan for Bikash and the class routine, and explain how you would talk to the grandmother.
Read the worked answer
Find the function of the behaviour first. Three incidents in a month, hunger by period three, the weakest reader in Class II, and a mother who is away: the hitting is likely to be about status and about being placed where he fails in public. Fix the routine before fixing the boy.
- Mark the mats with name cards and fixed places, so that 'his mat' cannot be contested.
- Move him for reading to a level where he succeeds (letter-sound work with the volunteer) instead of the Class II text.
- Check at the start of the day whether he has eaten; if not, give the midday meal early or a dry snack, and ask the grandmother about food at home.
- Give him two classroom jobs to provide legitimate status.
- Use a daily card with three boxes, one star for each incident-free group-work session, shown to the grandmother weekly.
- Teach one replacement routine to the whole class - ask, do not push - through a role play, because the other children are watching how the school responds.
With the grandmother: meet at a time she can manage, in her own language, with the volunteer or an SHG member present. Describe behaviour, not character. Ask what has changed at home. Agree one thing she will do (send him after eating) and one thing the school will do. If incidents continue after two weeks, refer to the BRCC with the record, not with a complaint.