Keeping antenna high on corporal punishment  

There is an incipient and hidden side to corporal punishment which is larger than the exposed side to it. That way it is fed on a culture of silence and its true magnitude remains concealed before the public eye. Here is how Ain-O-Salish Kendra unravels almost a year-by-year number of incidents of corporal punishment compiled by it: From 516 in 2011 through 295 and 354 in 2015 and 2016 respectively, to 105 and 30 in 2017 and January-February, 2018 respectively. The picture, though fluctuating, on the whole reveals that the incidence of corporal punishment is on the decline. This is good news but which must be read with a caveat that there could be, and most probably is an overwhelming number of unreported cases.

Admittedly, intermittent media exposes, outcries by child rights or educational activists, court intervention and ruling and government ban on all forms of corporate punishment at primary and secondary schools and madrasahs did make some difference by way of reducing the intensity of corporal punishment. Conversely, in spite of the legal provisions like the National Child Policy, 2011 and the High Court verdict outlawing capital punishment including caning, beating, chaining and confining in July 2011, how could the menace still continue? Especially, at the nursery of social capital building?

According to a sample survey, half of the urban parents said that teachers punished children for breaking rules while 58 per cent of the rural parents said their children were caned at schools when they were found to have been disobedient. One testament as to how seriously the matter was being pursued along official channels comes screaming to the auditory nerves: Over 55 per cent of all teachers said they had not received any notice regarding the 2011 ban on physical punishment. Sixty-four per cent of the guardians interviewed said they were unaware of the law that forbids use of such practice. Quite clearly there is an issue of serious awareness deficit about legal stipulations and provisions prohibiting corporal punishment among the teachers, parents and guardians. Students, parents and the school authorities must join hands to enforce zero tolerance to corporal punishment. A periodic inter-face between a school committee and a student committee could be helpful in building rapport between the teacher and the taught.

Given a long rope by school or educational authorities, even parents or guardians who ignored a 'slap on the wrist' of their wards (as a wake-up call!), a perverse culture of physically 'disciplining' the tender-aged stewed in its own juice of toxic chemistry. And this happens to them when they are at their emotionally most vulnerable state of mind. It could hamper their mental and physical wellbeing. What's more, their sense of self-worth may take a tumble.

The overarching imperatives are three-fold: In the first place, an expert task force needs to be entrusted with the responsibility of creating up-to-date data bank on incidence of corporal punishment. Secondly, teacher training module needs to emphasise persuasive, affectionate yet principled behavioural engagement with the students. Lastly, good conduct will have to be recognised and rewarded, a special complement of which shall be examples set in teacher-student rapport or relationship.