'Even in sleep, my child cries out, don’t stitch my mouth', says the mother

“My child is still in trauma. Even in sleep, he suddenly screams, ‘Don’t stitch my mouth shut.’ He also keeps saying, ‘I won’t go to school anymore.’ He is so afraid that we (his parents) might send him back to school that he does not even want to stay with us. He has gone to his maternal grandparents’ house.” This is what the mother of a child under four who was abused at school, told Prothom Alo. She spoke to this correspondent on Thursday afternoon at the premises of Paltan police station, after filing a case regarding the abuse of her child.

The child’s father said that within just one week of enrolling his son in the pre-play class at the school, the child became a victim of such inhuman abuse. They were shocked after seeing the video of the abuse. The boy repeatedly said, “Uncle said, if I tell at home, he will choke me with his legs. He will stitch my mouth shut.”

The incident occurred on 18 January at the Sharmin Academy on Mosque Road in the capital’s Nayapaltan area. The child is the only child of the couple. They requested that their identities not be disclosed.

The video of child abuse from the school’s office room has now gone viral. In the video, a woman enters an office room with a child wearing a school uniform. She first slaps the child. Then a man who was already inside the room attacks the child. At times, the man is seen grabbing the child by the throat, at other times covering the child’s mouth. He had a stapler in his hand. The child is sometimes crying, sometimes moving restlessly. The woman holds the child by the hands to restrain him. At one point, when the child spits on the woman’s sari, the man presses the child’s head against the spot where the spit landed and shakes the child’s head several times in that position.

Police said the woman in the video is Sharmin Jahan, the founder and principal of Sharmin Academy, and the man is the school’s manager, Pabitra Kumar. Police informed that they are husband and wife.

This morning, a visit to the school showed that it was closed. However, several parents were present there, having come to inquire. They said they were frightened and enraged after seeing the video of child abuse inside the school. The school operates up to class five in several rooms on the ground floor of a three-storey building inside a narrow lane. The building’s security guard, Syed Kamrul Haque, told Prothom Alo that he had heard the school was established in 1992.

Later, this correspondent spoke to police officials the Paltan police station. Around 1:30 pm, the child’s father, mother, and grandfather came to the station. The mother later filed a case as the complainant against two accused persons under Section 70 of the Children Act.

This section, titled “Punishment for Cruelty to Children,” states that if any person causes injury, torture, neglect, abandonment, exposure to danger, misuse for personal care work, or indecent display of a child under their custody, responsibility, or care, and as a result the child suffers distress or health damage (loss of eyesight or hearing, damage to any organ or sense, or mental disorder), that person shall be deemed to have committed an offence. The punishment for this offence includes up to five years’ imprisonment, or a fine of up to Tk 100,000, or both.

Although the Ministry of Education issued the “Policy on the Abolition of Physical and Mental Punishment of Students in Educational Institutions 2011,” incidents of physical punishment in educational institutions still occur. Mental punishment, on the other hand, is common. When asked whether there is a lack of monitoring, Professor Bidhan Ranjan Roy Poddar, Adviser to the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, told Prothom Alo that this is indeed a problem. Overall, intolerance has increased among people, and its impact is falling on children. Government control over kindergarten schools is weak. However, due to the policy, incidents of physical punishment in educational institutions have decreased compared to before.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Motijheel zone) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Hossain Muhammad Farabi, told Prothom Alo that the child’s parents came to the police station on 19 January, the day after the incident, with the video footage of the abuse and lodged a complaint. The abuse is clearly visible in the video. A police team visited the school that same day. At around 2:00 pm today, the parents came to Paltan police station and filed a case. The accused named in the case are Sharmin Jahan and Pabitra Kumar. They are currently absconding.

Officer-in-charge of Paltan police station, Mohammad Mostafa Kamal Khan, said that the child’s parents are working professionals. Police had advised them to take legal action. However, initially the parents were reluctant to file a case due to security concerns.

The child’s parents told police officials at the station that their son is very lively and stubborn by nature. When angry, he throws his hands and feet and spits. They had informed the principal of this during admission. They had also told the school that their home is very close and that they should be called if any problem arises. At that time, the principal reassured them by saying, “Children are naturally lively. We can ‘manage’ such children.” But the parents never imagined that children would be “managed” through such punitive measures. After seeing the video, they were traumatised.

The child’s mother told Prothom Alo at the police station that her son’s class starts at 11:00 am and ends at 1:00 pm. Usually, the father goes to pick him up after class. On that day, the mother went instead. The child’s clothes were crumpled, one shoe was off, and his hair was messy. He looked very depressed. Thinking the child must have done something seriously naughty, she went to ask the principal. The teacher said that the child had kicked and spat at the teacher, so she had lightly slapped him. Hearing about her child’s misbehaviour, the mother felt embarrassed and apologised to the teacher before taking her son home. But after returning home, the child became restless.

The father said the child complained of pain in his throat, mouth, and ears. He kept saying repeatedly, “I didn’t do anything. They beat me. Uncle said if I tell at home, he will choke my throat with his legs. He will stitch my mouth shut.” This raised their suspicions. When the parents and the maternal grandfather went to the school to talk, Sharmin Jahan and Pabitra Kumar denied the abuse.

When the child became ill at night, the parents took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Later, they collected CCTV footage. The next day, 19 January, when they went to the school, the principal admitted to the abuse and apologised, mentioning her school and children and appealing for forgiveness for the future. However, Pabitra Kumar became aggressive and threatened to file a counter-case against them, accusing them of illegally collecting video footage, if the matter was reported to the police. After that, several influential local figures pressured them not to file a case.

The child’s mother said that although they had submitted a written complaint along with the video footage to the police that day, they did not want to file a case due to fear and insecurity. They were indecisive. Ultimately, she filed the case seeking justice. She wants the perpetrators to be punished and hopes that such incidents of child abuse will not occur in any school.

Child protection worker Shahnaz Moni from Child Helpline 1098, operated by the Department of Social Services, was present when the family filed the case. She told Prothom Alo that work has already begun to help the child recover from trauma and return to a normal state.

On Thursday morning, many parents were expressing angry reactions against the school authorities in front of the school. Sonia Sharmin, one parent, said she was unaware of the incident. After coming to the school with her child and learning about it, she was stunned. She said that many times she comes late to pick up her child, who waits in the office room. Now she is afraid to leave her child at the school.

Another parent, Mamunur Rashid, said his son is also very mischievous. Once, his son was separated from other children and taught alone. After learning of this, he protested.

Another parent said he was deeply shaken after seeing the video. His two children studied at the school, and his third child also studied there. No such incident had ever happened before. Previously, Sharmin Jahan and her husband ran the school. After her husband’s death during the COVID period, she ran it alone for some time. About a year ago, Sharmin Jahan remarried Pabitra Kumar and made him the school’s manager.

56pc of children face physical abuse in educational institutions

The global platform The Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children (GIE) has been campaigning against physical punishment of children since 2001. Since 2020, the platform has been working under the name End Corporal Punishment. In its 2024 updated information on Bangladesh, the platform stated that the policy against physical punishment in schools needs to be enacted into law. Moreover, physical punishment is still not prohibited in Bangladesh in homes, day-care centres, or detention facilities.

A research report titled “Violence Against Children and Its Associated Factors in Urban Areas of Dhaka, Bangladesh”, published in May 2023 by the Bangladesh University of Health Sciences (BUHS), stated that 58 per cent of children face physical abuse at home, 56 per cent in educational institutions, and 65 per cent on playgrounds. The study was conducted in 2019 in two wards of Mirpur under Dhaka North City Corporation. A total of 401 children aged 10 to 16 from low-income families participated in the study.

Professor Begum Rawshan Ara, Dean of the Faculty of Public Health and Head of the Department of Reproductive and Child Health at Bangladesh University of Health Sciences (BUHS), who led the study, told Prothom Alo that physical and mental punishment of children must be stopped. Otherwise, children’s development will be hindered and mental depression will develop. This is harmful not only for children but for society as a whole. If children do not develop properly, the country will not get a healthy generation. She demanded that child abusers be brought under punishment to set an example.