Corporal punishment has no place in a civilized society. Yet a recent High Court judgment in the southern Indian state of Kerala recently upheld the legitimacy of this method of punishing a child.
Condemned by psychologists and social scientists, the ruling comes at a time when India's school system is under severe strain. The syllabus is driven by a textbook culture that forces children to cram for exams rather than helping them develop as rounded human beings, sensitive to others.
The court order -- which admittedly allows the use of a cane or a teacher's palm only under "certain circumstances" and "within certain limits" -- is seen by many as giving license to teachers to vent their own frustrations. Most of them are underpaid, with the result that the profession attracts little talent.