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There are times one needs to walk out from their glass cabins and look at the world outside. Well that is the ideal situation not that it ever happens, especially when you are running one of the exclusive private schools in Kolkata.
 
The recent news of thirteen year old Rouvanjit Rawla’s suicide  shocked the entire city and sent shockwaves down the school communities. Why did he die? Why did he kill himself? Did he do badly in his last exams? Did his parents beat him? Actually it was the four walls of his school that drove him to do this. It’s been a decade since the High Court has banned corporal punishment but has that ever stopped anyone. I don’t think so. It’s so difficult to think that the teachers who are meant to be there to guide the students are wielding this authoritative power to inflict mortal (?) pain on those very pupils for whom they are the beacon of trust.
 
Corporal punishment has gained a certain sense of legitimacy as a certain person recently exclaimed on facebook ‘ In the good old days we all used to be caned’ as if this is something that is a part of our heritage that needs to preserved. His words reminds of a patriarchal structure which screams out : for a boy to turn a man he needs to be caned.
 
This is not the first instance that something like this has happened. In 2008 Rinki Kaushik died after being in coma for three months after being assaulted by a class teacher. Also who can forget Babli Ghosh who was hit with a duster and then repeatedly slapped till she fell down unconscious and was declared dead and the teachers tried to hush the matter up. It s not just the district schools which have been lax about adhering to the corporal punishment regulations. Rouvanjit is just another case in point, but this is the time when we can do something, when we can stand up and not allow him to be just another tragic case in the police file. La Martinere, the school where this incident took place has been under investigation and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPR) has found them guilty of driving the teenager to suicide. It is now up to the judiciary how they plan to
handle the case.
 
The incident has sparked off a heated debate and some of the ex students have decided to hold a candle light ceremony to show support towards the school. This has of course outraged other students who feel by trying to protect the school’s name one was doing great disservice to cause of humanity and the values the school has taught them.
 
Pujarini Sen a former student of La Martinere exclaimed ‘Flashes of injustices done to me while in LM keep flashing in my head, as do fantastical images of protests against this cruelty.. But right now, I feel immobile and blank.. I just don't understand.. Especially because some students and ex-students are choosing to support the school!!? WHAT?! Whyyyyyyyyy pray tell WHY? Can anything get more elitist and whatever the school equivalent of being violently ultra-nationalistic is!? It's madness. It's wrong. And I cannot be a part of it.’
 
Support what's right. Stand up for the school's values and not just it's "name". DON'T light a candle to save it from bad press, light one for Rouvanjit -- and make a statement! We of La Martiniere, want to drain out the evil that poisons our legacy, and we stand united to counter it, Pujarini urges all Martinians and signs off. Its not just about La Martinere today, its about our beliefs and what we stand for. This is the time for the student community to actually stand up and assert what is right.
Rohit K Dasgupta