“Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime.”

– Herbert Ward

Having watched the TV debates on the Shantiniketan episode (where a 10-year-old girl was made to consume her own urine as punishment for having wet her bed) and perused the subsequent newspaper reports, I must confess to a deep sense of unease. I would go so far as to say that I was deeply disturbed.

The reasons for my discomfiture were not just professional – although having dealt with children who have had this problem for well over 30 years as a psychiatrist and even before that in my previous avatar as a paediatrician – I daresay I have had enough experience to treat the remedy that the warden resorted to with the utmost contempt. Never before in my over 40 years in the medical profession have I been confronted with a suggested remedy of this nature, no matter what loonytunes such as Swami Agnivesh have to say.

I was primarily disturbed because here I can foresee the possibility of a young girl being scarred for life unless some immediate measures are taken.

The other reason for my dismay was the reaction of the school and the university authorities in response to the near-universal criticism they faced. Their actions and utterances would suggest that they are more interested in wriggling out of the situation on the hope that time would ensure indifference. The Registrar of the university displayed an insensitivity that was jarring and his demeanour was reflective of ineptitude beyond belief. I also find the university’s plea that the child’s mother had given consent to any remedial measure for the bed-wetting, nothing short of shameful. No one, least of all the teaching staff, should be entitled to inflict a punishment that was likely to have permanent consequences in terms of the victim’s self-esteem – even if the parents asked for it, which I sincerely doubt.

The third reason for my sense of anger and disgust was the attitude of the governmental authorities. It defies conceivable logic that the police would physically examine the girl – four days after the episode took place. Had they asked for a psychological examination that might have made sense, but I simply cannot think of any rationale that could legitimise their actions. I am also worried about the silence that the state’s Chief Minister has stoically maintained on this issue. Is it because children do not constitute a vote bank? I have not even mentioned the treatment the police have meted out to the tormented parents. It smacks of intimidatory tactics which should have no place in a democratic society, but which we all know take place with impunity.

But the main reason I felt deeply anxious was deeply personal and I shall attempt an adumbration here in the fervent hope that some may find my narration helpful.

I shall deal with the problem of bedwetting or nocturnal enuresis first. We all know what it means – involuntary urination while in slumber at an age when bladder control is expected to occur. It is not that uncommon a problem as many would imagine. I recall my boarding school days and a particular student who had this problem continually until he was 15. The notable fact here was that the boy was the son of a very senior professor in a medical school in the state. He had had extensive treatment but to no avail. Eventually he got over it.

When I was training as a psychiatrist, I looked at the literature and found that 5-7% of all children fail to develop optimal bladder control by the time they are 10 years old. About 2% still have problems at 15.

Surely anyone involved in the exercise of educating children would be expected to be conversant with these figures and recognise the problem for what it is – an illness that deserves medical treatment. Different treatments such as the use of antidepressants and the alarm technique have been tried with varying degrees of success.

But for a warden to treat it as aberrant conduct worthy of the humiliation she inflicted and the defense put up by the Shantiniketan authorities deserves the highest condemnation. I could have understood had they decided to ask the parents to remove the child from the institution. I am sure though, that this medieval torture was not what the great Tagore had in mind when he started the institution.

To look at the broader picture, this is a case which should prompt a national debate on whether teachers are legitimately empowered to inflict lasting humiliation.

As Edmund Burke said, “The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse”.
Even an overly cooperative child is at risk of being dominated and controlled through a system of praise and rewards. Expectations that do not consider a child’s needs and feelings do more harm than good. The end result: a damaged child.

And it certainly was not in the poor child’s scheme of needs to be made to drink her excretion – that too, in the presence of her peers.

Emotional child abuse is a silent epidemic, easily overlooked, and the effects can be hidden in all sorts of behavioural labels. It is possibly one of the most damaging forms of abuse. Repeated disrespect or unreasonable criticism towards the child can have serious emotional consequences and long-term repercussions. It can impair the child’s self-image, self-esteem and interfere with the child’s ability to function adequately in society, succeed academically and form healthy, intimate relationships.

My own generation grew up in an era in which corporal punishments were widely practiced. Looking back on those times, I can identify some good teachers and some not-so-good teachers but almost all believed in retention of corporal punishment within their armamentarium. I firmly believe that every child has an innate capacity to recognise the motives of the teachers who inflicted these punishments – studies have confirmed my instincts. Some teachers punished because they genuinely believe that this would bring about a positive change in their pupils. There were others who enjoyed inflicting humiliation on the pupils mainly to gratify their deeply pathological sadistic instincts. And there were some who were extremely enlightened and believed that in teaching children, one could not stick to a pattern that had universal applicability. Each child had individual needs and every good teacher recognised the need to modulate their techniques according to the needs of that particular pupil.

About time I shared my own experience. At a very early stage of my education – I was much younger than 10 – I was exposed to a humiliating experience by a sadistic headmaster called Germaine Ferreira at a school in Kanpur. Ferreira was a Catholic priest in a convent school. One day I found him indulging in activities which were inimical to his role as a priest – even at that tender age I could recognize that. What happened afterwards was a nightmare that haunted me for years. Every day I was hauled up for the most insignificant reasons – a button missing on my shirt, my shoes not being suitably polished and so on. I was made to do over 50 rounds of the football grounds – and when I failed, made to face the most brutal form of physical torture which still sends shivers down my spine. It was difficult to take as I knew very well that Ferreira was being dishonest – and looking back, he probably needed treatment himself. My generation was not trained to complain about our teachers. Eventually, this pattern was noticed by my parents who after an altercation – which resulted in Ferreira absconding temporarily – removed me from the school and admitted me in a boarding school in Lucknow.

But if Ferreira’s aim was to damage me psychologically, he succeeded. I had developed a stutter, lost all self-belief and most importantly lost faith in the inherent goodness of humanity. Also, I developed a pathological aversion to the Catholic Church which was redeemed only when I built up a relationship with Mother Teresa.

As I have indicated, I had nothing against those teachers who inflicted punishment upon me as long as I could understand the genuineness of their motives. The boarding school I went to had, at the time, a very tough warden who also doubled as my biology teacher. There were others who were tough too – but I could see that their main motive was never to inflict humiliation. And I respected them for that. A good many of my teachers from those days are still alive – and I share the best of rapport with them to this day. I would go so far as to say that it is because of them I was able to overcome the Ferreira effect and move on in my profession.

However it was not until I had to undergo self-analysis as part of my psychoanalytical training in New York, that the extent of the damage that Ferreira had done became obvious. I recovered, but shudder to think of those who could not just because of this man – who in my view disgraced not only the teaching profession but his church as well.

During one of my visits here the then-Principal, Father Staney heard of my lecture and invited me to address the school as an alumnus. I politely and firmly declined. And I wrote to him about my own experience with Ferreira running into 10 pages. To my surprise he responded by stating that I should forgive and pray for Ferreira and informed me that he was still alive and living in Goa. In 2011, when the alumni association of that school wanted me to attend their get-together, they very kindly invited me. I could not attend.

The point I am elaborating here is that the broader problem of child emotional abuse which this warden has inflicted will have very long lasting effects. And, as a matter of priority I would like the child to be seen by a child psychiatrist.

And if this sordid saga encourages debate on the issue, at least something positive would have resulted.

“Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them.” –

Richard L Evans

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