Protests erupt after boy from downtrodden caste is ‘beaten to death’ by teacher in India

Violent protests broke out in India’s Uttar Pradesh after a 15-year-old boy from the Dalit community died after he was allegedly beaten by his teacher in a school.

Nikhit Kumar, a student at a private school in the Auriya district of northern Uttar Pradesh, died 19 days after he was allegedly thrashed by his teacher for giving incorrect answers in class.

According to a police complaint filed by Nikhit’s family, the boy was verbally abused with casteist slurs for being a Dalit – belonging to the lowest rung of the Indian Hindu caste system, formally known as “untouchables”.

His family has alleged that the teacher physically assaulted the boy with sticks and kicked him until he fell unconscious, over a mistake in a social science test on 7 September.

The teenager was in and out of hospital for two weeks after incident, police say, but was rushed to the emergency ward on Sunday after his condition deteriorated.

Protests broke out after his body was handed over to the family following a post mortem.

In the clashes that followed, angry protesters resorted to arson and stone pelting, setting fire to at least two private vehicles and two police vehicles in overnight protests on Monday night.

The boy’s body was laid on the road outside the school where he was beaten, as protesters raised slogans to demand justice.

“At first my nephew was beaten brutally by the teacher and then abused as we are Dalits,” Rishi Kumar, an uncle of the boy, told Reuters.

“The teacher hails from the upper caste, he killed Nikhit and later hurled casteist slurs when we demanded monetary compensation,” he added.

The Dalit community consists of 200 million people in India today. Even though the concept of “untouchability” was outlawed in 1955 and successive governments have introduced measures of positive discrimination in jobs and education, the people of the community remain targets of discrimination and abuse throughout the country.

The teacher suspected of the attack remains on the run, police say, and faces charges under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, as well as of culpable homicide, voluntarily causing hurt, and intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace.

Auraiya police official Mahendra Pratap Singh said a preliminary inquiry has suggested that the boy was suffering from a kidney ailment before the incident and was undergoing treatment at a hospital, according to Indian Express.

Officials are awaiting the boy’s post mortem report and medical records from the hospital to confirm the cause of his death.

On Tuesday, the teenager’s body was taken for cremation by the beavered family who demanded the arrest of the teacher.

On 15 September, the rape and murder of two minor Dalit girls rocked the state’s Lakhimpur Kheri district. The two sisters were found hanging from a tree after they were gang raped and six suspects were later arrested after scenes of violent protest.

In India, crimes against Dalits increased by 9.4 per cent, marking a steep rise from 45,961 cases in 2019 to 50,291 in 2020, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau.