Maltreatment against 3 year old in UP playschool; principal denies allegations

A case of child maltreatment has surfaced from Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli, where a 3-year old child was hit by her teacher.

On July 12, when Shrishti*, who was a student at Bachpan playschool in the city's Nirala Nagar area, returned home. She was visibly upset and given her age, she was unable to properly communicate with her mother the reason for her bad mood. After she reached home, the child's face was swollen as if someone or something had hit her under the eye.

When Shrishti's parents contacted the school, the principal gave an unconvincing answer, and denied their request to meet the teacher in charge of Shrishti's class, saying they were unavailable on both the 12th and 13th of July. They refused to show the school's CCTV footage as well.

The principal also threatened Shrishti's parents when they tried to prod the incident, and told them to withdraw the child's admission from the school and take back the fee. The principal's husband allegedly called Shrishti's father as well and yelled at him. All this when the school had failed to protect the child or provide her first-aid, the parents alleged.

The school's principal, Achala Srivastava, has however, denied these allegations. Speaking to National Herald, she said, "We have the CCTV footage for the entire day and the teacher never even touched the student." According to her, the child was in class for an hour, sitting on the first seat. After the class ended, she was handed over to her mother, who sat with her in the school premises and fed her lunch for 27 minutes and then proceeded to play with her on the swings.

The principal said that in this while, the mother wiped Shrishti's face at least 2-3 times since the weather was humid, and if Shrishti was really hurt, it isn't possible that her mother wouldn't have noticed it. The principal also alleged that Shrishti's mother sent her a photo of the child's eye, which was red, three hours after she reached home, and went to the doctor in the evening, during which anything else could have hurt her.

On the CCTV issue, the principal confessed that since she is not very well versed with technology, she told the parents that she could not show them the CCTV footage at the moment, but they could come back later when she had technological assistance. The principal even offered that since she could not operate the computer, the parents were free to operate it and watch the footage with her. But she alleges they denied. She even called them in the evening when her manager had transfered the footage to a pen drive, but they said they were busy.

About the unavailability of the teacher, the principal said that the teacher had taken a half-day leave on July 12, since she had to go to the dentist and had taken the next day off as well. She alleged that Shrishti's parents misbehaved with the teacher later.

The family has approached the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the National Human Rights Commission to have their grievances heard, and for proper action taken against the school.

The principal says she is not fearful of any complaints since she has been running this school for the past 15 years and has done no wrong. She added that the parents even lodged a complaint with the school's head office in Delhi, who are conducting an enquiry into it and have already been forwarded the CCTV footage.

*name changed for privacy