Shiv Rachit was all excited to go to school in Malkajgiri on Children's Day on Tuesday. His father told Sakshi TV correspondent that he had dropped his two and a half year-old son at Bachpan school himself on that fateful day. Young Rachit bade good-bye cheerfully to his father and headed straight for his class. Some time later, he slipped into an open sump, an incident that went completely unnoticed in the school which had 6 ayahs.

The child's mother went to pick up her son at about eleven and was told that Shiv Rachit had not come to school. However, they told the school authorities that his father had dropped him in the morning. The child's relatives claimed that the school knew of the boy's death and concealed it. School authorities had quietly hushed up the matter and it was only when one of Shiv Rachit's father's friends asked them forcefully, that they handed over the child's body, which was all the more shocking.

The apathy of Bachpan School management was clearly evident. The child's parents told Sakshi TV correspondent that they were blocked by the school from a Whatsapp group consisting of parents of the school's children. Friends and relatives of the family were also critical of the police officials handling the case. They said that SI Shankariah of Malkajgiri Police Station repeatedly asked the boy's parents to opt for a "settlement" and wondered as to what kind of settlement could be reached by them when they had lost their precious child.

The incident once again puts the spotlight on schools being run in small compounds with no play area worth the name.