A 10-year-old Class 4 student died after his neck became entangled in a makeshift cloth swing at a government primary school in Chhattisgarh’s Mahasamund district on Friday, prompting the education department to suspend the headmaster and an assistant teacher.
The incident occurred at the government primary school in Basna block before classes had begun. Police said the child, identified as Tarun Chauhan, had reached the school campus and was playing with around eight to nine other children. The swing, made from cloth or saris and tied to a tree, was reportedly used by children for swinging and for hanging upside down while playing.
According to the preliminary account, Tarun slipped while playing and the cloth became entangled around his neck, leaving him suspended from the tree. Women who arrived at the school premises later spotted the child and attempted to bring him down, but he had already died.
Bhanwarpur police outpost in-charge Anjana Chandra said no teacher was present when the incident took place because it occurred before teachers had arrived. A school helper had reportedly opened the premises and left shortly afterwards. The account has placed the school’s opening and supervision arrangements before class hours under scrutiny.
Police registered a case and sent the body to the Basna community health centre for post-mortem examination. The body was subsequently handed over to the family. The precise medical cause of death will be confirmed through the post-mortem report, according to the report.
District education officer BL Dewangan suspended the headmaster and an assistant teacher after a preliminary inquiry into safety and supervision at the school. The suspensions are administrative action pending further examination of the circumstances surrounding the death.
Officials are investigating how long the makeshift swing had remained tied to the tree, whether school staff knew that children routinely used it, and what arrangements were in place to supervise students before the start of classes. These questions are central to determining how an improvised play structure was allowed to remain inside a government school campus and whether risks had been identified earlier.
The incident also brings attention to the period before formal teaching begins, when children may already be entering school premises but designated classroom supervision may not yet have started. In this case, police said the school had been opened by a helper who left before teachers arrived. The inquiry will establish the responsibility of staff and the school administration during that interval.
The education department’s preliminary action follows the death but does not, by itself, establish the final cause of the accident or individual liability. Those issues will depend on the police investigation, the post-mortem findings and the departmental inquiry. Officials are expected to determine the timeline of the swing’s installation, the extent of staff awareness and the supervision protocol operating at the school when the incident occurred.
