NHRC issues notice to DM, SP of Barmer in Rajasthan over branding of students with iron rod
New Delhi (PTI): The NHRC on Thursday said it has issued notice to the Barmer administration over reports that some students were allegedly branded with a hot iron rod by their teacher at a hostel inside a temple complex in the Rajasthan district.
Reportedly, the video of the incident also went viral on social media, the National Human Rights Commission said.
The human rights body said it has taken "suo motu cognisance of a media report that a teacher, annoyed with the bedwetting by some students, branded them with a hot iron rod at a hostel inside a temple complex in Barmer district".
The NHRC has observed that the content of the news report, if true, raises serious issues of violation of human rights.
Therefore, it has issued notices to the district magistrate and the superintendent of police of Barmer, seeking a detailed report within two weeks, including the health status of the victim students.
According to the media report, carried on August 22, one of the injured boys reached his home and reported the matter to his family, after which the villagers gathered in large numbers to protest, the commission said.
In another statement, the NHRC said it has taken suo motu cognisance of a media report that about 18 students at a government school in Bihar were allegedly subjected to "corporal punishment" by their teacher after locking them inside a room in Haflaganj area of Katihar district on August 21.
"Their ordeal stopped when some parents raised the alarm while visiting the premises in connection with some work," it said.
The commission has observed that the content of the news report, if true, raises serious issues of violation of the human rights of the students.
Therefore, it has issued notices to the state's chief secretary and the superintendent of police of Katihar, seeking a detailed report in two weeks.
According to the media report, also carried on August 22, several villagers gathered at the school and started protesting. Sensing trouble, all the male teachers fled the school. The police also reached the spot, it added.
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Student found dead in hostel room in IIT Kharagpur
Kolkata (PTI): A 22-year-old M Tech student was found dead in his hostel room in the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, the second such incident reported on the campus within a span of 10 days.
The student, identified as Soham Haldar, was found hanging from the ceiling of his hostel room on Tuesday and he was immediately taken to the institute hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead, an IIT Kharagpur official said.
Haldar, a dual-degree student in Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering, was a boarder of the Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Hall of Residence on the campus.
Police from the Kharagpur Town police station have initiated a probe into the incident as preliminary findings indicated that it could be a case of suicide, though the exact cause of death will be ascertained following the post-mortem examination, the official said.
In a statement, the institute expressed deep grief over the student's death and said a detailed inquiry has been initiated.
The authorities have informed the family and are extending all possible assistance to them, it added.
Director Suman Chakraborty told PTI that the institute will strengthen the mechanism to identify stressed-out and depressed students and take follow-up steps to address their issues.
The grief-stricken parents of the student, who hailed from Barasat in North 24 Parganas district, have come to the campus and the authorities will speak to them, he said.
"Haldar's friends, faculty and staffers also could not gauge any stress or anxiety in him. But we need to enable students suffering from anxiety and extreme stress to open up their minds and do everything needed to prevent such incidents," he said.
Investigators are also scrutinising CCTV footage from the hostel premises to piece together the sequence of events leading to the incident.
The incident comes close on the heels of another student's death reported on April 18, when 21-year-old Jaibir Singh Dodia, a third-year Mechanical Engineering student from Ahmedabad, allegedly died after jumping from the eighth floor of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hall of Residence. That case is also under investigation.
The back-to-back incidents have once again brought the issue of mental health and student support systems at the institute into focus, especially in view of several such cases reported last year.
