Two teachers booked for hitting and mistreating 25 toddlers at play school

Two teachers at a play school in Mumbai have been accused of mistreating, hitting and slapping 25 toddlers, resulting in an FIR being filed against them. The report follows a complaint by the father of a two-year-old boy who noticed significant behavioural changes in his son. Other parents have also reported similar issues with their children. The teachers, Jinal Cheda and Bhakti Shah, have been booked under section 23 of the Juvenile Justice Act 2000.

MUMBAI: Two teachers of a play school at Swami Vivekanand Road in Kandivali West were booked on Sunday for allegedly mistreating, hitting and slapping 25 toddlers. The FIR is based on the complaint filed by the father of a 2-year-old boy after he noticed severe behavioural changes in the toddler such as being afraid of noise and being aggressive.

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According to the complainant, Kaushal Dinesh Zaveri (35), who works for the Asian Paints and stays in Kandivali West, teachers at the Rhymes and Rumbles play school allegedly mistreated his son and other children as well. Zaveri told the police that he had enrolled his son in the preschool in October last year and the school was for two hours every day.

“There was no way to conduct a background check of the playgroup, our choice of the playschool was based only on other parents’ experience,” said Zaveri. There were 25 children admitted to the playgroup in two batches.

“Since December we started observing minor behavioural changes in my son, like getting scared of noises even if somebody laughed at home. As days passed, he started becoming aggressive,” Zaveri said, adding that the first thing that came to his mind was that his son was perhaps being bullied by other kids in the playgroup.

“I then grew suspicious and started talking to other parents in the playgroup. I soon realised that all the parents were experiencing similar behavioural changes in their kids,” said Zaveri, who then asked the teachers to provide the CCTV recordings of the class sessions.

“I was shocked to see that the two teachers at the preschool - Jinal Cheda and Bhakti Shah were hitting the kids and literally throwing them on the ground, pinching their cheeks hard if they did not pose for a promotional photo or even head slapping the back of their heads with books if they accidentally dropped it. They generally hit one kid and made him the example as others sat in their seats in fear,” said Zaveri.

Zaveri told the police that Cheda, who owned the preschool, had admitted more kids than they could handle with just two assistant teachers. “One of the teachers quit the job in January and the other followed whatever Cheda did,” said Zaveri.

After watching the CCTV recordings, Zaveri and a few other parents approached the police.

“We have booked the two teachers under section 23 of the Juvenile Justice Act 2000 (punishment for cruelty to a juvenile or child),” said a police officer from the Kandivali police station.

The police have given a notice to the teachers to be present before the officers and record their statements. “Investigation is going on. We are scanning through the CCTV recordings of the playgroup and also recording statements of other parents,” said the officer.

The school management could not be contacted in the matter till the time of going to press.