Delayed development
Poor hygiene, unwashed clothes or inadequate clothes
Untreated medical conditions
Being hungry or tired all the time
Missing Institute or difficulties with Institute work
Poor self esteem
Withdrawn and difficulty making friends and/or anti-social behaviour
A child needs protection from people with unhealthy attitude present in the Institute campus. These include other Institute students, administrators, teachers and rest of the Institute staff (i.e., cleaning agency workers, office staff, security workers, etc). Child protection can be ensured through appropriate action against bullying; corporal punishment; any sort of physical, verbal or sexual abuse and indiscipline, violence or substance abuse. Therefore, Child protection policy includes sub-policies namely-

Anti-Corporal Punishment Policy
Anti-Bullying Policy
Anti-Cyber-Bullying Policy
Anti-Tobacco and Substance Abuse Policy
ANTI-CORPORAL PUNISHMENT POLICY

The Right of children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE, 2009), clearly states that no child shall be subject to “physical punishment or mental harassment” in Institute. Those officials that contravene this provision shall be liable for disciplinary action under service rules applicable to them.

It is not easy to define corporal punishment as it involves humiliation and insult which a child feels as a subject. Considering the millions of ways in which punishment is perpetrated on children in contemporary times, it is impossible to exhaust all the forms of insinuations and violence. However, following behaviour has been categorically put under Anti corporal policy of the Institute.

Physical punishment is understood as any action that causes pain, hurt/injury and discomfort to a child, however light. Examples of physical punishment include but are not restricted to the following:

Causing physical harm to children by hitting, kicking, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling the hair, boxing ears, smacking, slapping, and spanking or with any implement (cane, stick, shoe, chalk, dusters, belt, whip, giving electric shock etc.)

Making children assume an uncomfortable position (standing on bench, standing against the wall in a chair-like position, standing with Institutebag on head, holding ears through legs, kneeling etc.)
Forced ingestion of anything (for example: washing soap, mud, chalk, hot spices etc.)
Detention in the classroom, library, toilet or any closed space in the Institute.
Mental harassment is understood as any non-physical treatment that is detrimental to the academic and psychological well-being of a child. It includes but is not restricted to the following:

Sarcasm that hurts or lowers the child’s dignity; Calling names and scolding using humiliating adjectives, intimidation;

Using derogatory remarks for the child, including pinning of slogans;
Ridiculing the child with regard to his/her background or status or parental occupation or caste;
Ridiculing the child with regard to his/her health status or that of the family – especially HIV/AID Sand tuberculosis;
Belittling a child in the classroom due to his/her inability to meet the teacher’s expectations of academic achievement;

Punishing or disciplining a child, not recognizing that most children who perform poorly in academics are actually children with special needs. Such children could have conditions like learning disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, mild developmental delay etc.
Using punitive measures to correct a child and even labelling him/her as difficult; such as a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder who may not only fare poorly in academics, but also pose a problem in management of classroom behaviours;
‘Shaming’ the child to motivate the child to improve his performance and
Ridiculing a child with developmental problems such as learning difficulty or a speech disorder, such as, stammering or speech articulation disorder.

Discrimination is understood as prejudiced views and behaviour towards any child because of her/his caste/gender, occupation or region and non-payment of fees or for being a student admitted under the25% reservation to disadvantaged groups or weaker sections of society under the RTE, 2009. It can be latent; manifest; open or subtle. It includes but is not restricted to the following:

Bringing social attitudes and prejudices of the community into the Institute by using belittling remarks against a specific social group or gender or ability/disability;
Assigning different duties and seating in Institute based on caste, community or gender prejudices for example, cleaning of toilets assigned by caste; task of making tea assigned by gender); admission through 25% reserved seats under the RTE; or non-payment of any prescribed fees;
Commenting on academic ability based on caste or community prejudices and
Denying a facility like library books or uniforms or sports facilities to a child or group of children based on caste, community, religion or gender.