Daily Lesson from Life 17 April 2009

"Indian schoolgirl 'left in sun to die'
She died after being made to stand in the baking sun as punishment for not doing homework: reports. -Fri, Apr 17, 2009 AFP

NEW DELHI, April 17, 2009 (AFP) - An 11-year-old Indian schoolgirl died after a teacher allegedly made her stand in the baking sun as punishment for not doing her homework, reports said Friday.

Shanno Khan started bleeding from the nose and fainted after hours in the searing New Delhi heat on Wednesday, and slipped into a coma after being taken to hospital. She died on Friday, the NDTV news channel reported.


Reports said the teacher and the school principal have been suspended, with police waiting for the autopsy on the girl's body before filing a possible criminal case.

India's Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury said the incident was a "terrible tragedy".


Corporal punishment is banned in India, but children are often physically abused by school authorities and teachers."

This is a tragic and unnecessary death of a young human being. Never mind that she is a girl as girl is human too! What is even sadder is that the people who partly caused her death are people with high education and were entrusted with educating our young! Of course, nobody expected her to die from just merely standing in the sun! I should know better as I had visited New Delhi in the height of summer and the temperature can reach 45C!!

Lessons for me are；

1. corporate punishment for school children is really out-of-date! Canning on the palm and on the buttocks are the most I will allow; and if administered by proper authority and gender specific and in private with witnesses;

2. when students don't get it we need to find out why. Just like leaders in the corporate need to find out why certain people are pulling their weights because they don't get it or they don't like it or they don't like you? Asking good questions and engaging in dialogue to find out the reasons and the root causes are the way to go; not by just meting out corporate punishment!;

3. the authority in this case probably it is hard done by as it was an 'accident'. Well, we can only be caution with no putting life at risk by not taking harsh treatment of students. We cannot afford a mistake here as it means a precious young life is lost! As leaders we must be cognizant of the power of our authority. In Asian context most people will comply with the leaders' commands but we want commitment and not just compliance. So, working out with the people is the way to go.

May the young soul find peace after death. And those who unwittingly caused her death learned from this. May those who were not involved also learned from this tragedy that we cannot take risk with young lives under our charges.