Glenn C. Kharkongor
Violence against children during the Covid-19 pandemic has increased according to many authentic reports from around the world. But we are not talking about increased physical, emotional and sexual abuse of children by criminal perpetrators or dysfunctional step-parents, or the problems of institutionalised or street children. We are talking about the increased beating of children by their own loving parents. UNICEF, WHO and scientific journals have collated initial data and the incipient factors.
These show that during Covid, parents have used increased physical punishment with children: definedas spanking, hitting or slapping. In one survey, parents also reported an increase in conflicts with theirchildren and an increase in yelling or screaming, using harsh words, and spanking theirchildren more often since the start of the pandemic. Young children and adolescents are more exposed than ever to physical or psychologicalviolence as a parenting practice.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, children and adolescents are mostly at home with theirparents and caregivers, who themselves are spending more time at home, because of restrictions on work and travel. Children are out of school, struggling to keep up with online classes, with no access to friends or playgrounds. Parentshave to keep them busy and safe while at the sametime attempting to work at home. Added to this is the prolonged threat to family income and financial stability. These strains have affected the mental well-being of all family members, caused increased friction in family relationships, setting up a scenario for aggression and violence.
As it is, physical punishment is very common, even during the first five years of a child’s life. According to UNICEF, more than half of children experience parental violence and psychological aggression. The report says that social, cultural and religious norms are used to condone such parenting norms.
Effects of physical and emotional violence
Exposure to violence, particularly in the firstyears of life, affect brain structure and result in lifelong impairments in cognitive and emotionalcapacities, in addition to contributing to high-risk and antisocial behaviour. Thismeans that children and adolescents who are victims ofviolence may show poor school performance, reduced social ability to, more irresponsible sexual behaviouror drug abuse, and a predisposition to chronic mental health disorders. These conclusions are based on scientific data.
For example, a collation of data by the American Academy of Pediatrics clearly showed that pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping,hitting and hitting a child is associated with mood disorders, anxiety disorders, substanceabuse, and personality disorders in a generalpopulation. A review of research by the Department of Family Social Sciences, University of Manitoba, and Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Canada has concluded that “Over the past 20 years, a growing body of research clearly indicates that children who have experienced physical punishment tend to be more aggressive toward parents, siblings, peers and, later, spouses, and are more likely to develop antisocial behaviour.Physical punishment may change areas in the brain linked to performance on IQ tests and increase vulnerability to drug or alcohol dependence.”
Even a small slap conveys the message that violence is anappropriate response to conflict or unwanted behaviour. Aggression breedsaggression. Children subjected to physical punishment have been shown to be moreaggressive to siblings, to bully other children at school, toshow anti-social behaviour in adolescence, to be violent to theirspouses and their own children, and to commit violent crimes.
Legal aspects
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of theChild defines physical and humiliating
punishment as “any punishment inwhich physical force is used andintended to cause some degree of painor discomfort, however light. Inaddition, there are other non-physicalforms of punishment that are also crueland degrading and thus incompatiblewith the Convention on the Rights ofthe Child. These include, for example,punishment which belittles, humiliates,denigrates, scapegoats, threatens,scares or ridicules the child.”
According to the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights,“corporal punishment is the infliction of pain intended to change a person’sbehaviour or to punish them. Though it mainly refers to physical pain either through hitting orforcing the child to sit/stand in uncomfortable positions; an evolving definition also includeswithin its ambit wrongful confinement, verbal insults, threats and humiliation.”. The Commission is of the considered view that there is noroom for corporal punishment in any deliberation with the child.
The Commission says, “Even animals are protected against cruelty. Cruelty to animals is punishableunder section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. Beating,kicking, overloading, torturing or otherwisetreating any animal so as to subject it to unnecessary pain or suffering is acriminal offence. Our children surely cannot be worse off than animals.”
Government of India statistics show that 65 per cent of school going children are subjected to
corporal punishment. This is in spite of Section 17 of the Right to Education Act 2014 which states that “No child shall be subjected to physical punishment or mental harassment.” Teachers in several Shillong schools still beat children. One school principal himself told me that he believed in the oft quoted biblical injunction.
Spare the rod,spoil the child?
According to Dr Cindy Miller-Perrin, professor of psychology, at the well-known conservative Christian Pepperdine University, liberal Christian denominations in the USA such as the Methodist and Presbyterian churches have passed resolutions encouraging parents to avoid the use of physical punishment, as have Jewish, Catholic, and Mormon faiths.However, among conservative Protestants, physical punishment of children is sometimes recommended and encouraged. Conservative Protestants report more frequent use of physical punishment than parents of other faiths.
She asks the question, “Are Christian parents biblically mandated to spank their children? Several verses in the Bible seem to indicate so.The important question, of course, is whether these passages should be interpreted as a mandate to spank, and whether the growing empirical research that spanking does more harm than good should contribute to the conversation that a symbolic interpretation would be indicated. Many progressive Christians and biblical scholars, say the Bible should be read with an understanding of the cultural context and thatit is also important to note that Jesus never advocated for physical discipline of children.
Being defensive about child beating
There are some commonly repeated reasons for beating children such as the following. “Corporal punishment is a necessary part of upbringing. Children learn from abeating to respect their elders, to distinguish right from wrong, toobey rules and work hard. Without corporal punishment children will be spoilt
and undisciplined.” “I was hit as a child and it didn’t do me any harm. On the contrary I wouldn’t
be where I am today if it were not for my parents and teachers physicallypunishing me.” “There is a big difference between a vicious beating and the little smacks. These are not dangerous, do not cause realpain and cannot be called abuse. Why should these be outlawed?” and “Corporal punishment is a part of my culture and child-rearing tradition.” The above questions are provided by The National Commission for the Protection of ChildRights and they have provided well-articulated answers.
In 1979 Sweden became the first country toprohibit all corporal punishment of children in schools and home.The preamble of the law says, “Children are entitled to care, security and a good upbringing. Children are to be treated with respect for their person and individuality and may not be subjected to corporal punishment or any other humiliating treatment. If we can’t convince our children with words, we shall never convince them withviolence.” Many other Christian majority countries have enacted such laws.
The noted sociologist Malinowski provides a detailed description of the Trobriand tribals’ attitude to Children, saying that “they enjoy considerable freedom and independence. The idea of a child being beaten or otherwise punished by a parent is viewed as unnatural and immoral. Things are asked as from one equal to another.A command, implying the expectation of natural obedience, is never heard from parent to child in the Trobriands”.
Those tribals have got it right. The message is scientifically and morally clear: Do not beat or scold your children.
The author is a former professor of pediatrics