An eight-year-old Dalit boy in Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla district was allegedly subjected to repeated caste-based harassment and physical assault by his school’s headmaster and two teachers, including an incident where they reportedly placed a scorpion inside his pants, police said on Sunday.
The accused, headmaster Devendra and teachers Babu Ram and Kritika Thakur, have been booked under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Juvenile Justice Act, and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
According to the complaint filed by the child’s father, the abuse had been ongoing for nearly a year at the Government Primary School in Khaddapani, under Rohru subdivision. He alleged that his son was regularly beaten, once so severely that his ear bled and his eardrum was damaged.
In one horrifying instance, the teachers allegedly took the child to a toilet and placed a scorpion inside his pants. The father also accused the headmaster of threatening to expel his son and warning the family against approaching the police. “They told us not to file a complaint or post about the incident on social media, or we would lose our lives,” he said.
The father further claimed that the school practised caste-based segregation, forcing Nepali and Dalit (Harijan) students to sit separately from Rajput students during meals.
Local reports suggest this is not an isolated case in Rohru. Just last week, a teacher in Gawana area was suspended for beating a student with a prickly bush. Earlier this month, a 12-year-old Dalit boy in Limda village reportedly died by suicide after being locked inside a cowshed by upper-caste women for entering their house.
Police have begun investigating the case. Officials said statements from the child and witnesses are being recorded, and medical examination reports are awaited.
This story was originally published in theobserverpost.com.