#BT Column – Corporal punishment by any name is still child abuse

By Sir Frank Peter

No ifs, no buts, no arguments… there should be zero tolerance to corporal punishment in all settings: schools, madrassas, childcare centres – wherever it’s likely to be found.

Why are some people pro corporal punishment? This is something I just can’t figure out. How does kicking, grabbing, shoving, slapping, pushing, pinching or confining children in small spaces; taping their mouths shut, pulling their hair, shaving their heads, tugging at their ears, pinching, belittling, mocking, embarrassing, swearing, cursing and robbing them of dignity, making them look foolish in front of their peers or breaking sticks upon their young tender hands, backs and legs and branding their calves with a red-hot spatula, actually help their development – or the children who are watching? Please explain.

How does even one of those inhumane cruelties aid a child to become an upstanding citizen? Am I missing something? Is it just me?

It’s become a real mind boggler to me as to how some people can be so cruel to innocent children for not remembering their times tables or forgetting a line of two from the holy scriptures, or a poem written a century ago. It just doesn’t make sense. And when the cruelty is performed by a religious body in the name of God or Allah, it makes even less sense.

They, the ‘teachers’ are far from being perfect in their own lives, but somehow they feel they are justified in beating them to a pulp over minute trivialities that in the end mean nothing… absolutely NOTHING … in the grand scheme of things.

In Bangladesh in 2011 Supreme Court judges Justice Md. Imman Ali and Justice Md. Sheikh Hasan Arif, defined the act of
corporal punishment as “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and a clear violation of a child’s fundamental right to life, liberty and freedom.”

Not only does corporal punishment violate the rights of children’s to freedom from all violence, but also their rights to good health, development and education.

Hit an adult and there’s every chance you will be charged with assault and battery, end up in court, and do jail time. Hit a child and it’s an entirely different scenario. They don’t have any rights worth mentioning or if they do, they are seldom enforced.

Irrefutable research results

Tons of irrefutable research has found that physical punishment is totally ineffective, bad for children’s development and actually makes children’s behaviour worse.

Unbelievable, but a monstrous 87 per cent of the world’s children are not protected from corporal punishment by law.

In November last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report in which it clearly stated a large body of research throughout the world has established links between corporal punishment and a wide range of negative outcomes—both immediate and long-term.

Some of those cause physical harm direct, sometimes resulting in severe, irreparable damage, long-term disability or death; mental ill health, including behavioural and anxiety disorders, depression, hopelessness, low self-esteem, self-harm and suicide attempts, alcohol and drug dependency, hostility and emotional instability, which continue into adulthood.

The report goes on to highlight corporal punishment as the society evil that impairs cognitive and socio-emotional development; damage to education, lower academic and occupational success and one of the leading reasons for children giving up at an early age and dropping out from education.

Who’s to blame the child if an ignorant sadistic ‘teacher’ beats him or her senseless in the classroom for making a miniscule error of no great importance; and he/she runs away to escape further brutality?

We’ve known for years, but the WHO report has again reminds us that corporal punishment leads to antisocial behaviour; increased aggression in children; adult perpetration of violent, antisocial and criminal behaviour; indirect physical harm, including developing cancer, alcohol-related problems, migraine, cardiovascular disease, arthritis and obesity that continue into adulthood; and damaged family relationships.

You can bet on it that wife-beaters were once victims of corporal punishment. You reap what you sow. If you want a sick, aggressive antisocial society, corporal punishment is a cheap and effective way of achieving it.

Child abuse

Corporal punishment, unquestionably, is CHILD ABUSE however light the abuse may be. There are no degrees of wrongness in this. Similarly, a woman cannot be a little bit pregnant. She’s either pregnant or she’s not. Calling abuse discipline doesn’t change the reality of the sordid fact.

Coat it with sugar, maple syrup, or give it an entirely different name and it still remains child abuse. Shakespeare once observed, a rose is a rose and by giving it another name doesn’t change that fact.

Ending corporal punishment is a human rights imperative, and essential if the world is to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #16.2 to end all violence against children by 2030.

That’s a mere eight years away and much change is needed. Put an end to corporal punishment and help create a better, healthier society.

Sir Frank Peters is a former newspaper and magazine publisher and editor, an award-winning writer, a humanitarian and human rights activist.