Say “No” to Corporal Punishments by George Plathottam sdb

NEW DELHI, June, 08, 2010, 09:50 Hrs (CBCI News / George Plathottam sdb):

Charles Dickens once wrote that many children are not brought up, but pulled up. Many parents and teachers consider corporal puishment as the most effective tool to educate and discipline a child.

Corporal punishments, which sometimes take extreme forms of violence, is a worldwide phenomenon. Children are inflicted physical punishments by parents, teachers, peer group members, and justice systems. When parents and teachers equate “discipline” with “punishment” and the latter takes violent expressions, the consequences for children can be tragic. There are reports of children losing limp and even life due to excesses in the way physical punishments are meted out to them. Many such cases go unreported as children are afraid to complain or protest due to fear of reprisal.

Parents, educators and society often mean well and are interested in the welfare of children in their care. At the same time they admit that coporal punishment is the surest way to ensure dicipline and extract duty, correct errors and improve character. They also feel convinced that they have the authority and power to punish a child. They try to extract discipline through various kinds of punishments. Parents punish children in their homes; in the schools the teachers take over. Children are also punished by police, leaders like villages heads, panchayats and clan. They consider it right and proper to punish children.

There is no scientific basis to believe that coporal punishments help get discipline and imporve character. On the contrary, there are ample evidences which suggest that children who are subject to corporal or humilitating forms of punishment develop serious handicaps and complexes. Physical injury and psychological trauma can leave symptoms that last a lifetime. Evidence indicate a strong relationship between high rates of corporal punishment and higher rates of poor academic achievement, increased rates of dropout, juvenile delinquency, incarceration and even spouse abuse. There appears to be a strong link between corporal punishment during the growing years of a child’s life, and his/her becoming a perpetrator of violence later in life.

Like other social malpractices such as gender discrimination, child labour, domestic violence, exploitation based on caste hierarchies, corporal punishment too is all pervasive, highly ingrained, and most resistant to change. The scenario of physical punishment meted out to children in families is shocking. What we often know is only the tip of the icebreg as many instances are hused up and go unreported. As part of the World Studies of Abuse in the Family Environment (WorldSAFE), a cross-national project, researchers looked at incidence rates of corporal punishments. India’s record in this regard was found to be worrying. Physical punishments take many forms: hitting the with objects, kicking, choking, burning, threatening with knife or gun, pulling hair, slapping on the face or head, hitting with objects on buttocks, twisting ears, putting hot pepper in mouth, shaking violently, forcing to kneel/stand in uncomfortable position, imposing manual labour, caning, beating with scale, throwing chalk or other instruments.

Corporal punishment breaches the fundamental rights of children to lead a life of respect, dignity, and physical integrity. The existence of special defenses in state laws, excusing violence by parents, teachers and care-takers, breaches the right to equal protection under the law. Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child requires States to protect children from “all forms of physical or mental violence” while they are in the care of parents, teachers and others. Though the Supreme Court in India banned corporal punishment for children, only six states have undertaken any efforts to follow that order. Of these only three states have completely banned corporal punishment: Delhi (2000), Andhra Pradesh (2002), Goa (2003), while the other three have sought prohibition on corporal punishment: Chattisgarh (1990), West Bengal (2000), and Tamil Nadu (2003).

Considering the extent and grvity of physical punihsment to which children are subjected to, both at home and in school, it is essential to review the way the fundematnal rights of the child as enshrined in the UN charter and other provisions of law are practiced. Though there exists many laws intended to protect the child, what is essential is a cohesive and effective mechanism to implement them. We also need to firm up the legal provisions to punish offending adults. One of the comendable steps in favour of the child has been the setting up of 24x7 Child Line centres by the collaborative efforts of the government and NGOs in many parts of the country to which children in distress can phone and seek counsel and help.

Today with education becoming a fundamental right we also need to take a closer look at the various kinds of punishments still prevalent in our schools. In particular it is important to examine the nature and extent of corporal punishments practiced in the schools and colleges across the country. We need a comprehensive review of our educational system to see how children’s rights are upheld and their dignity is respected. Many children suffer from cruel parents at home and merciless teachers in the school. Often the ‘crimes’ for which the children are punished are trivial but pubishments are severe and even cruel.

School is not the only place where the child is tormented. In 2007, the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, published the first nationwide study on child abuse in India. It revealed a high prevalence of corporal punishment of children in all the settings – their family homes, schools, institutions and on the streets. Of the total number of children surveyed, 69% admitted that they have been physically abused and given corporal punishments. The study was based on the experiences of 12,447 children aged 5-18 years from across 13 states. It also involved 2,324 young adults (aged 18-24) and 2,449 stakeholders (adults holding positions in government departments, private service and urban and rural local bodies, and individuals from the community). In the 5-12 age group, nearly three out of four (72.2%) reported physical abuse in one or more situations, in the 13-14 year age group 70.61%, and among 15-18 year olds 62.13%.

Of children abused within the family, in the majority of cases the perpetrators were parents (reported by 88.6% of respondents). The second most commonly reported perpetrators were teachers (44.8%), followed by employers (12.39%), caregivers (9.45%). The study also revealed that the risk of being punished was higher with younger children and declined as they grew older. The most commonly reported punishment was being slapped and kicked, followed by being beaten with a stick and being pushed, shaken. Some even use locking up a child in a room or denying food as forms of punishment. Scolding and shouting are widely used too. There have been instances when punishment has led to serious physical injury, swelling and bleeding. The psychological trauma caused by these and other forms of punishments cause serious damage to the child.

A larger research conducted in May 2006 by Saath Charitable Trust and supported by Plan International (India) looked at children’s experiences of corporal punishment in schools and in the homes in one district each in each of the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. The research involved 1,591 children from 41 schools as well as members of various children’s organisations. Parents, teachers (215) community members, government officials and other adults were also consulted. The researchers used interviews, focus group discussions, and role plays and classroom observation.

The research team found corporal punishment to be an accepted way of life in all the schools and communities they visited. The most common forms of punishments were hitting with hands and stick, pulling hair and ears, and telling children to stand for long period in various positions. Threats of physical violence were also common. Severe forms of corporal punishments were also encountered, including being severely kicked, starving, tying with rope to chairs/poles followed by beatings, and being assigned physically strenuous manual labour.

In all schools, there would be at least five beatings a day, in addition to other more moderate forms of punishment. Sometimes the punishments in school were less severe than those experienced in the home. Punishment in the home was inflicted by mothers and fathers on both girls and boys with equal severity. But boys were more frequently punished than girls. A 2004survey of 1,500 adolescents in ten government schools of Chandigarh, carried out by the Advanced Pediatric Centre, PGI found that the prevalence rate of corporal punishment was 22%.

Another study in 2004 by the NGO Aapanach found that, of 350 children surveyed from public, private, and municipal schools, over 75% reportedly received punishment at school, and nearly 60% said the most frequent form of punishment was caning or hitting with a ruler. It was common for the whole class to be punished (66%). A third (33%) reported cases of severe injury due to punishment. A 1996 study supported by UNICEF found that 66% of children in the state of Maharashtra reported being regularly punished by their teachers in class. In the state of Tamil Nadu the corresponding figure was 87%, with similar prevalence figures in urban and rural schools. In a study carried out in Chandigarh in 1986-87, it was found that 98.3% of parents were in favour of physical punishment, and out of 187 school-going children aged 6-10 years, 160 had received beatings at home.
Corporal punishments were used to instil disipilne and to punish offenders in the Greek and Roman societies. The school of Sparta, which has given us the word ‘spartan’, was known for rigorous disciplinary methods. In the Roman Empire, criminals and offenders were punished with lashes with a whip. In the belief that physical punishments instil good discipline in the pupils, schools in many parts of the world endorsed and practiced corporal punishments. But in recent decades Europe and countries like Japan, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and a few others have outlawed it. In many Asian and African countries coporal pubihments continue to be comonplace and regarded as lawful.

American Psychological Association (APA) has opposed the use of corporal punishment in schools, juvenile facilities, child care nurseries, and all other institutions, public or private, where children are cared for or educated. It claims that corporal punishment is violent and unnecessary, they lower self-esteem, and is liable to instil hostility and rage without reducing the undesired behaviour. The APA also believes that corporal punishment is likely to train children to use physical violence.

During the first decade of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) its treaty body, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, has consistently stated that persisting legal and social acceptance of corporal punishment is incompatible with the Convention. The CRC requires States to protect children from "all forms of physical and mental violence" while in the care of parents and others (article 19). The Committee has recommended that States in all continents should implement legal reforms to prohibit all corporal punishment, and initiate public education campaigns to promote positive, non-violent forms of discipline, including within the family, school and other institutions and penal systems.

The Committee condemned legal concepts which attempt to define "acceptable" violence meted out to children - "reasonable chastisement", "lawful correction" and so on. The Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children aims to ensure that the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and other human rights bodies are accepted and that governments move speedily to implement legal reform and public education programmes.

Corporal punishment is in most countries a deeply embedded traditional practice. Hence, political and community leaders do not show keen interest in abolishing it as it might invite public displeasure. Some argue that it is a deeply personal issue: most people were hit as children; most parents have hit their children. People do not like to think badly of their parents or parenting. This makes it difficult for many people to accept the human rights imperative for challenging and ending all corporal punishments.

There is a large body of international research suggesting negative outcome from corporal punishment. But despite the growing consensus that corporal punishment breaches children's fundamental human rights, most of the world's children are still subjected to legalised assaults by their parents and by other care givers and teachers. In every continent there have been moves to end corporal punishment in schools and penal systems. Countries that opted to abolish corporal punishment in recent years include Ethiopia, Korea, South Africa, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago and Zimbabwe. More countries are likely to abolish all corporal punishment of children and enact reforms for their welfare. Instituting the necessary legal changes is not expensive: what is required in almost every state is the explicit removal of arguments to justify physical assault of children, and ensuring that children have equal protection under the law. It is possible to integrate promotion of positive discipline into areas such as health promotion, education and early childhood development.

Even when legally permitted, corporal punishment must be a premeditated act and not to be confused with venting one’s anger which leads to acts of violence and brutality. According to the Indian law under the Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2004 and the 86th amendment of the Indian constitution: (1) No child shall be awarded physical punishment in any recognized school. (2) Violation of sub-section (1) by a teacher shall amount to professional misconduct, and shall be liable to be punished in accordance with the disciplinary rules applicable to him / her.

As erly as the eleventh century Saint Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke out againt what he saw as the excessive use of corporal punishment in the treatment of children. Christian schools in India, considered models of academic excellence and discipline, should set an example in effecting total ban on all forms of corporal punishments. The All India Catholic Education Policy promulgated by the Catholic Bishops’ Confernce of India (CBCI) in 2007 calls for respecting the dignity of the child. It urges Catholic educational institutions to develop “both in the classrooms and on the campus, a friendly and humane climate. While discipline (whose goal is develiopment and not control), is enfored with firmness, it is also accompanied by love and comapssion. Hence, we avoid all aspects of a dicsipline that is coercive”(cf.4.45). Children would do much better without coporal punishment.