Two boys tied to bench over 'naughty' behaviour in Andhra school, child rights commission orders probe

Activists expressed their outrage after photos of two children tied to a bench at a school in Andhra Pradesh's Anantpur district caught their attention.

Andhra Pradesh state commission for the protection of child rights ordered a probe into the incident, demanding that a criminal case should be filed against the authorities.

"I have spoken with the district collector and the municipal commissioner and asked them to conduct an inquiry and submit a report. Full details about the incident are not yet available. I have asked them to take departmental as well as criminal action against those responsible for the incident," PTI quoted the Commission chairperson G Hymavati.

The hands and legs of a third-grader and a fifth-grader were tied to a bench, in a municipal school on Thursday in Kadiri town.

The headmistress Sridevi said that the punishment was meted out to them after they were behaving naughtily in class. She also said that compensation should be provided to the children after the probe.

As per the Juvenile Justice Act and also the Right to Education Act, any form of physical punishment in school was a criminal offence, she pointed out.