Mumbai school reprimands 8-year-old for 'inappropriate touch'

A Vile Parle school reprimanding an eightyearold for allegedly indulging in inappropriate touching has set off an important debate at what age do children know the difference between good and bad touch Child psychology experts and the Maharashtra State Child Rights Commission MSCRC feel that children of this age cannot indulge in any such act knowinglyThe discussion began after the mother of the eightyearold boy approached MSCRC stating that she has received a complaint from her sons school about him indulging in inappropriate touchingHe doesnt even knowRecalling the incident the parent said Theyd just told me that there were complaints against my son After asking about the nature of the complaints I was told that he hit his classmates and touched them inappropriately I was shocked to hear that It is impossible for me to believe this as he is just 8 years old Forget about indulging in any such act hes not even aware about bad touch yetThe mother continued The school authorities denied my request to see the complaints All of them present in that room were throwing questions at me like it was some courtroom and Id committed a serious crime More so my son was also called in to be questioned He was quite scared All of this was really humiliating I couldnt understand why we were being targeted like thisSchool saysWhen midday approached the school authorities the principal said He might have just been involved in a physical fight with his classmates and wouldnt have understood what he was doing amounts to bad touch as he was hitting fellow students on their private parts We had to inform his parents about thisSpeaking about the meeting the principal claimed the neither the child not the parent were humiliated Out of the three complaints two were from boys and one from a girl They surely needed serious cognizance which is why we asked the parents to come for meeting We feel that the child needs counselling as he is currently unaware of these things and might have misunderstood certain information Our senior teachers have been asked to keep a check on whether he is being bullied or targeted by other children or if he is sitting alone in class etc But nothing of that sort has come to our notice Were looking forward to begin his counselling But the parent seems to have taken it as a personal grudgePravin Ghuge MSCRC chairperson said This complaint is of a very sensitive nature and hence has to be dealt with a much deeper approach Both sides need to be heard including the child in presence of a qualified counsellor to have deeper understanding of the issue and reach a conclusionOnus lies on parents teachers and schoolStating that there shouldnt be any blaming or complaining in such cases clinical psychologist Dr Seema Hingorany said Though children these days are hugely exposed to the media they are majorly unaware of good and bad touch They might be reenacting something out of curiosity or just be fighting with fellow classmates without knowing that it is considered as bad touch Since there is no way for a child below 1213 years of age to understand inappropriate touch the onus lies on parents teachers and school This is why the education on bad touch needs to start much earlier and dealt with more sensitivelyAlso ReadMumbai Crime Minor girl of reputed Charkop school molested kin demands thorough probeCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates