If You Haven’t Seen It All: Now Buy Beating Stick “Ideal For Educational Purpose” From Amazon (image: amzn.eu/d/iokzHHE)
Earlier, the term discipline in schools were highly associated with punishment. At present, enforcing discipline via beating by canes, a form of corporal punishment is not only viewed as an accepted mode of practice but also illegal. However, a recent product listing in Amazon e-commerce portal has evoked astonishment. A departmental store in Assam has featured a cane on the online shopping cart specifying it as “3 feet long beating purpose”. Interestingly, it pointed out that one of the significant feature of cane stick is it is “ideal for educational purpose”. Though physical punishment is banned under Right to Education, its existence in the platform with advertising the aim which should have been banned even before, raises concern.
In the product description, they write in detail about school corporal punishment. Apparently, the reproduced description delves into the history of school corporal punishment, and attempts to validates its prevalence. This underlines that even though physical punishment is banned it is still continuing in both government and private educational institutions. In India, as per the Constitution, it is against both Right to Life under Article 21, and Right to Education under Article 21A. Section 17 (1), Chapter IV of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act says, “No child shall be subjected to physical punishment and mental harassment”. The product shows 3 star rating.
When an X user posted Amazon”s cane stick image, some interesting comments did turn up. When internet”s famous TheLiverDoc responded with emojis depicting astonishment and a user named @RaunaqBali wrote, “Why is it rated 3 stars and who are these people rating beating sticks”.
“Beating sticks” for class/school use! 🤦🤦🤦🤦 “beating purpose” 🤦🤦🤦🤦 pic.twitter.com/r2DWabrcZa
— Ameet Datta 🇮🇳 (@DattaAmeet) January 4, 2024
The product is currently available on online for Rs. 249.
