Indian authorities are investigating the death of six-year-old Pranay Teja, who collapsed at a private school in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, after his kindergarten teacher allegedly slapped him for not completing his homework. He was taken to King George Hospital and declared dead on arrival.
Grainy classroom security footage appears to show Teja standing in a queue and pleading with the teacher before she pulls him closer and slaps him. He then collapses onto her, and other teachers attempt CPR before taking him to hospital.
What happened at the school
Teja’s father, Krishna Prasad, said he received a call from a friend around noon on Thursday telling him that his son had collapsed and been taken to a public hospital. Prasad, who works as a cook in homes, reached King George Hospital after his son had died.
The state School Education Department described the death as “extremely unfortunate and painful” and established the three-member committee. Teja’s death is still under investigation, so the available footage and allegations do not by themselves establish the cause of death or criminal responsibility.
Why the case has revived a wider debate
India’s Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act was introduced in 2009 and came into force the following year. It expressly bans physical punishment and mental harassment in schools. The Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, also criminalises cruelty to a child by people responsible for the child, including teachers.
Researchers and lawyers cited in the report say enforcement remains weak, particularly in schools serving poor, rural and marginalised communities. A 2018 Agrasar study found that nearly 80 percent of surveyed low-income schoolchildren in Gurugram reported being beaten several times a week; a majority of their parents approved of corporal punishment and used it at home.
Lawyer Kawalpreet Kaur said complaints can be treated as minor incidents under general criminal laws, while school authorities may discourage families from pursuing them. She called for mandatory reporting, complaint mechanisms independent of schools and greater attention to repeated patterns of discrimination rather than isolated physical incidents. For additional context, see “Thailand school shooting leaves teacher dead and four injured”.
Discrimination and punishment
The debate also concerns who is most vulnerable to punishment. Historian Ruchika Sharma said caste hierarchies have shaped the use of punishment in India for centuries, while British rule later normalised and systematised caning within education institutions.
Earlier cases have included the 2022 death of nine-year-old Dalit student Inder Meghwal in Rajasthan after he was allegedly beaten for touching a water pot, and the 2023 incident in Uttar Pradesh in which a teacher directed pupils to slap a seven-year-old Muslim classmate. The Supreme Court later ordered that child to be moved to another school and directed the state to pay his education costs.
A 2022 study in the International Journal of Educational Development found that the effects of corporal punishment on cognitive outcomes were significantly more severe for children from disadvantaged caste groups than for children from privileged-caste backgrounds. Lawyers also say insults, slurs and selective punishment can create continuing harm even when there is no visible injury.
What happens next
The Andhra Pradesh Education Department says its inquiry is continuing and that teacher sensitisation programmes are being planned to promote more sensitive, responsible and humane treatment of students.
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