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If you have studied in India, chances are you had a teacher who inspired you to do better and grow. If you have studied in India, there are also chances that you have been shamed for something as small as wearing lip balm or putting on a ponytail.

Every September 5th, when Teachers’ Day rolls around, classrooms are transformed into stages of celebration. Primary students make cards and perform, while secondary students assume the revered role of teachers to give their mentors a break. It is the one day when students truly understand how noble a profession teaching is.

The rest of the year? Most students are busy grappling with an environment where the line between teaching and hyper-surveillance is routinely erased.

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Decoding moral policing in Indian classrooms

Once children are exhausted facing the scrutiny of their strict parents and relatives, teachers step in with their snide remarks like “Are you coming to school to study or for a fashion show?” “Look at how you are sitting”, “Boys will be boys, but girls should know their limits”, “Don’t act oversmart”, “Look at him behaving like a girl”, and the absolute favourite “Are you trying to impress the boys?”

We are conditioned to laugh these off as classic “Indian teacher tropes”, so much so that Indian social media creators also bank on these experiences for content. In reality, these are weaponised insults disguised as discipline. When a teacher uses public shame to police a child’s length of nails or their posture, the psychological toll isn’t minor- it is foundational.

In fact, you can witness the long-term effect in the very comment section of Instagram Reels. Every time I come across a skit about moral policing, I run to the comments and, without surprise, I find hundreds and hundreds of adults who experienced the same collective embarrassment in their childhood as me. All former students unite in those comment sections with their unresolved issues.

When young people are repeatedly told that their unique interests, their friendships with the opposite gender, or even an innocent question is “wrong”, “distracting”, or “audacious”, they learn to view themselves through a lens of inherent wrongdoing. Students learn that their own bodies and natural self-expression are inappropriate, and they carry this self-doubt into adulthood.

Furthermore, when a student is singled out and targeted, it is to force compliance. To avoid becoming the next subject of a teacher’s taunts, students shrink themselves, ultimately stifling their individuality. So what the teachers end up doing is manufacturing anxious adults who know exactly how to shrink in the background.

Phrases like “boys will be boys” or “behaving like a girl” do not just police behaviour; they actively enforce regressive gender norms. Female students are taught that they are solely responsible for preventing “distractions,” while male students who express sensitivity or care about their appearance are taught that non-conformity will be met with public ridicule.

Not to mention the body shaming that comes with the moral policing. Plus-size girls are humiliated over the fit of their clothes, told that their skirts are too short and kurtis are too tight when wearing a standard size. Dark-skinned students are subjected to casual, cruel colourism under the guise of grooming advice. From forced hair-pulling during morning assembly line checks to loudly commenting on a teenager’s weight or bust size, teachers cross every line of personal dignity.

What needs to change?

To break this toxic cycle, we need to stop treating moral policing as an inevitable part of Indian schooling and start treating it as systemic overreach. The reform has to begin at the very foundation: teacher training programs (B.Ed and M.Ed) must urgently move beyond syllabus delivery to include mandatory education in adolescent psychology, gender sensitivity, and personal boundaries. At the same time, school administrations must establish strict codes of conduct that explicitly classify public shaming, body shaming, and invasive checks as professional misconduct and not “discipline.”

It is time to retire teachers as moral wardens and welcome them as empathetic mentors. Only then can we truly call teaching a noble profession in India.