The Hindu : Battered boy rescued from orphanage

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 04, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Battered boy rescued from orphanage

By Ramya Kannan

TELL-TALE EVIDENCE OF CANING: Arvind in hospital. — Photo: K. Pichumani

CHENNAI Sept. 3. Six-year-old Arvind Sheshadri was rushed to the casualty ward of the Government Royapettah Hospital. Apart from marks of caning all over the body, a swollen wrist and arm, the boy had sunken eyes, burn marks and a visibly undernourished look. Doctors immediately identified him as a `battered' child and treated him for soft tissue damage in the left arm and put him on IV fluids.

It was only on Monday morning, nearly a month after he had gone missing from school, that his grandmother and guardian, Bhooma Rajagopalan, discovered him, unwashed and unfed, crouching behind a washbasin at `Athmalaya', an orphanage in Velachery, where he was admitted.

Having been informed that the child had been missing from school since August 6, Ms. Rajagopalan rushed to the orphanage and asked to see the child. Though she was told that Arvind was not present in the home, the woman forced her way in and found him frozen with fear. ``The warden threatened the child that he would be beaten up, if he told the truth. He was even scared of me,'' says Ms. Rajagopalan.

Later, in the relative security of the hospital and surrounded by relatives, Arvind admitted that he had been repeatedly beaten up. The fear in him is still apparent, as he speaks in hushed tones. ``The warden beat me up many times with a cane. Other children were also beaten up. I do not want to go back there.'' He has been suffering abuse ever since he was admitted to the orphanage in June 2001.

Earlier, the boy complained of having been hit in the eye with a rod. He was hospitalised after having been forcefed a lot of sweets, as a punishment by the warden. Ms. Rajagopalan says, "I spoke sternly to him. He said it had happened by accident and promised that it would not happen again. I left the child there since we had no other option''.

Arvind is not an orphan in the strict sense of the term. His parents are alive, but his mother has been diagnosed as `mentally ill' and his father is a resident cook in a Gopalapuram temple. A case has been registered against the warden, Ganesan (26), and he has been booked under IPC Section 324 (voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapons). Offences under this Section can attract rigorous imprisonment for up to three years or a fine, or both. The Social Welfare Secretary, C.K.Gariyali, says the department would take stern action against `Athmalaya' and cancel its licence if it had any.

Sociologists point out that caning of small children at school continues as a legal form of punishment.

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