Parents tie five-year-old daughter up, leave her on terrace for ‘not finishing homework’
NEW DELHI: A five-year-old student of Class 1 was tied with a rope and left to suffer on the terrace of her house in the scorching heat by her mother for not doing her homework in northeast Delhi’s Khajuri Khas area, the police said on Wednesday after a video of the incident was widely shared on social media.
In the video, purportedly shot by a neighbour, the girl can be seen tied with a rope and writhing in pain on the hot terrace under the sun.
Deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Sanjay Kumar Sain said that after the video surfaced on Wednesday, initial enquiries based on the information available, along with the video clip, suggested that the incident took place in Karawal Nagar. However, when the local police investigated the matter, they found that no such incident took place in the area, the DCP said.
“On further verification, the address of the house shown in the video was found to be in Khajuri Khas area,” he added.
An investigator said that the incident took place on June 2, and the mother of the girl confessed to the police that she punished her daughter for not doing her homework.
“A case under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act has been registered at Khajuri Khas police station and further investigation is going on,” the officer said.
The girl’s father, a 39-yearold tailor, said that on June 2, he had gone to get his bicycle repaired and his wife and two children — the five-year-old girl and their 11-year-old son were at home. “I received a call from my father that my wife had given this severe punishment to our daughter and that I should come home. When I reached home, my father told me that he came home and saw the girl tied on the terrace, and freed her,” said the girl’s father.
According to the man, his wife was teaching their daughter but she was not finishing her homework. He also said that his wife left the minor girl on the terrace for about 10 minutes. “My wife got angry and punished her. When my father told me, I scolded my wife a lot that day but the next day, a relative from our village sent me the video. I scolded my wife again,” the father said.
He added that the video was recorded by a minor boy who lives next door.
Police officers said the video clip was being shared since June 3 in the local groups, but it emerged on social media on Wednesday, prompting the police action.
Social media users expressed outrage over the incident and demanded action against the culprit.
One of the users also tagged
Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana and Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal.
“This is HORRIBLE. Please take note of this immediately,” said Rahul Singh urging authorities to act on the matter. Another user Anand Verma said, “Please look into this matter immediately.”
Section 17 of the Right To Education Act, 2009, imposes an absolute bar on corporal punishment. It prohibits physical punishment and mental harassment of children and prescribes disciplinary action to be taken against the guilty person in accordance with the service rules applicable.
Besides this, since corporal punishment abuses and hampers the child’s right to freedom and dignity, Article 21 of the Constitution protects the right to life and dignity of any individual including the right to education of children up to the age of 14.