Few months back I met few of my
former students after a long gap of 21 years whom I taught in class 8 when I
worked in a private school. Now they are proprietors of big business
establishments at Delhi and responsible parents of lovely school going children.
We had rekindled memories of their high school days nearly for two hours over
dinner at a restaurant and I practically realized the extent to which acts of
mental harassment committed by few teachers affect children throughout their
life. They narrated how a particular teacher branded them unfit to study
Advanced Mathematics at class 9 merely for the reason that they were not taking
private tuition from him and how the school authorities blindly believed the
words of the teacher without any concern for the feelings of the students. I
really felt sad from the depth of my heart when they said, “Sir, the feeling of
shame we underwent when we were kicked out from the Mathematics class still
haunt us time to time. Even though we try to forget it, the mathematics books
of our children provoke the pain of insults we underwent in front of our
friends and make us depressed even today.” I could sense the feelings of anger,
agony and depression in their words and facial expressions even after a span of
20 years of occurrence of the incident. While we were parting ways they
requested me to ensure that such things never happen to any student under my
care. In this article I would like to enlighten the readers about different
types of child abuses existing in our schools and homes and also about the ways
and means of protecting children from the ill effects of these cruel acts.
It is now globally recognized that punishment in any form
or kind in school comes in the way of the development of the full potential of
children. But in our society punishing children is regarded as normal and
acceptable in all settings-whether in the family or in institutions. It is
often considered necessary in order that children grow up to be competent and
responsible individuals. It is widely used by teachers and parents regardless
of its evident lack of effectiveness and potentially harmful side-effects. Its
very ineffectiveness tends to result in an escalation spiral which then leads
to both a culture of rationalization by those in authority and passive
acceptance of the situation as evidence of ‘caring’ by children. So pervasive
is the justification of corporal punishment that a child may not think her /
his rights have been infringed upon. Even if the punishment hurts, the child
does not feel the importance of reporting the incident. There are layers of
beliefs and practices that cloak corporal punishment under guise of love, care
and protection, when it is actually an abuse of authority that harms the child.
This notion needs to be reviewed in the light of the widespread violence that
exists in all institutions occupied by children.
Now let us see the meaning and different types of child abuses
existing in homes and institutions. Any Act that may cause harm to a child's
health, survival, dignity and development is termed as Child Abuse. It has many
forms: Physical, Emotional, Sexual, Neglect, and Exploitation.
Physical Abuse: Deliberately hurting a child causing injuries is called
Physical Abuse. Children who are physically abused suffer violence such as
being hit, kicked, burned, and slapped or having objects thrown at them.
Emotional Abuse: Emotional abuse is the emotional maltreatment or
emotional neglect of a child. It’s sometimes called psychological abuse and can
seriously damage a child’s emotional health and development.
Sexual Abuse: Sexual
abuse is engaging a child in any sexual activity that may be touching or
non-touching. Abuse may be conducted by an adult or another child who is
developmentally superior to the victim.
Neglect: Neglect or negligent treatment is purposeful omission of
some or all developmental needs of the child by a caregiver with the intention
of harming the child. This includes the failure of protecting the child from a
harmful situation or environment when feasible.
Exploitation: Exploitation can be commercial or otherwise, where by
the child is used for some form of labour, or other activity that is beneficial
for others. Example: child labour or child prostitution.
Corporal Punishment:
Currently there is no statutory definition of corporal punishment of children
in Indian law. Definition of corporal punishment can at best only be
indicative. Any punishment imposed on children with the intention of causing
physical hurt or discomfort may be called as corporal punishment. In keeping
with the provisions of RTE Act, 2009, corporal punishment could be classified as
physical punishment, mental harassment and discrimination.
Physical punishment: Any
action that causes pain, hurt/injury and discomfort to a child, however light
comes under physical punishment. Acts of making children assume uncomfortable
position (Standing on bench, kneeling etc), detention in the class room,
library etc also fall under the definition of physical punishment.
Mental harassment: Any
non-physical treatment that is detrimental to the academic and psychological
well-being of a child is called mental harassment. Few examples of these acts
are humiliating or constantly criticizing a child, threatening, shouting at a
child or calling them names, making the child the subject of jokes, or using
sarcasm to hurt a child, pushing a child too hard or not recognizing their
limitations, persistently ignoring them, never saying anything kind, never
expressing positive feelings or congratulating a child on successes, never
showing any emotions in interactions with a child etc.
Discrimination: It is
understood as prejudiced views and behavior towards any child because of her /
his caste/gender, occupation or religion and non-payment of fees or for being a
student admitted under the 25 % reservation to disadvantaged groups or weaker
sections of the society under the RTE Act, 2009.
Few examples of these acts are
assigning different duties and seating in schools based on caste, community or
gender, commenting on academic ability based on caste or community prejudices,
deliberate / wanton neglect etc.
Long –term consequences of
corporal punishment:
1. When adults use corporal punishment it
teaches their children that hitting is an acceptable means of dealing with
conflict. The more children are hit, the more is the anger they resort as
adults and consequently the more they hit their own children when they become
parents and more likely they are to approve of hitting.
2. Corporal punishment leads to adverse
physical, psychological and educational outcomes- including increased
aggressive and destructive behavior, increased disruptive behavior in the class
room, vandalism, poor school achievement, poor attention span, increased
drop-out rate, school avoidance and school phobia, low self esteem, anxiety,
somatic complaints, depression, suicide and retaliation against teachers that
emotionally scar the children for life.
3. Children subjected to punishment prefer
aggressive conflict resolution strategies with peers and siblings and they do
not consider it a violation of their rights.
4. There is an association between
corporal punishment meted out to children and maladaptive behavior patterns in
later life, such as aggression and delinquency.
5. The effects of various forms mental
harassment or psychological maltreatment have shown that:
(a) Combination of verbal abuse and
emotional neglect tend to produce the most powerfully negative outcomes (b)
psychological maltreatment is a better predictor of detrimental developmental
outcomes for young children than the severity of physical injury experienced by
them(c) it is the indicator most related to behavior problems for children and
adolescents and (d) psychological abuse is a stronger predictor of both
depression and low self – esteem than physical abuse.
6.
A chronic pattern of psychological
maltreatment destroys a child’s self and personal safety.
7. Subtle and overt forms of
discrimination are also known to have a negative effect on the emotional and
intellectual health of children.
In
recognition of the harmful consequences of corporal punishment on the child,
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child stated that, “There is
no ambiguity: ‘all forms of physical or mental violence’ does not leave room
for any level of legalized violence against children. Corporal punishment and
other cruel or degrading forms of punishment are forms of violence and States
must take all legislative, administrative, social and educational measure to
eliminate them.”
In the
next issue we shall discuss about the Constitutional and Legal provisions made
available in our country to protect children from corporal punishment.
