Making Our Judgments Right: Ethics of Corporal Punishment in Indian Schools

Abstract

The case Ayub Khan v. Municipal Corporation of Delhi Schools is one of the landmark cases for promoting a conversation on ethics of corporal punishment in Indian society. Based on literature synthesis and the critical examination of the Court case using ethical frameworks (Stefkovich, 2006;Stefkovich & Shapiro, 2010) this paper argues that law alone may not preclude teachers from using an age old practice such as corporal punishment. Furthermore using literature related to the Court case as secondary data sources, the paper argues that teachers trained in incorporating ethical paradigms in their decision making presents best chances for effective implementation of laws against corporal punishment in Indian schools.