Segregating students on the basis of their background, referring to them by their caste, religion or parental occupation, and accusing them of being unfit for education amount to corporal punishment under the new definition of discrimination suggested by the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council (NAC) to the government.
The NAC on Monday asked the HRD ministry to come out with regulations under the watershed Right To Education (RTE) Act on corporal punishment, with specifics on ways to end discrimination against students from weaker sections — scheduled castes and tribes, minorities and disabled — in schools.