CHANGE was around the corner, human rights activists thought, when Pakistan ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1990. Decades on, the only apparent change is that the number of children has probably trebled — and so has their suffering.

‘Corporal punishment’ is defined as “any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light”.

There are other, non-physical forms of punishment that are also cruel and degrading — punishment that “belittles, humiliates, denigrates, scapegoats, threatens, scares or ridicules the child”.

We all know that corporal punishment is rampant in Pakistan. Except for a few lucky ones, schoolchildren are physically abused; the practice is deeply ingrained in both public and private schools.

State parties to the CRC are required to submit a report to its committee every five years. Our reports make many promises but are seldom able to claim any achievements. For almost three decades, Pakistan has promised to eradicate corporal punishment in all settings.

Corporal punishment is damaging our national psyche.

The committee is not a sanctioning body; it’s only meant to provide guidance by issuing conclusions after a detailed review of a report. While reviewing our third and fourth reports together in October 2009, it expressed its deep concern that corporal punishment is still legal under Section 89 of the Pakistan Penal Code, and is used extensively as a disciplinary measure in homes, schools and alternative care settings, as well as in the penal system despite its prohibition in the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000.

Since its review of Pakistan’s first report in 1994, the committee has recommended we repeal Section 89 and explicitly prohibit all forms of corporal punishment in all settings. In addition, it recommends setting up an effective monitoring system in order to ensure that abuse of power by professionals working with and for children does not take place in schools and other institutions.

With a view to changing general attitudes and promoting positive, non-violent, participatory forms of child-rearing and education, it recommends public education, awareness-raising and social mobilisation campaigns on the harmful effects of this practice.

It is particularly concerned with reports of physical and sexual violence, illegal detentions and ill-treatment within madressahs, as well as the latter being used for training and recruiting children for armed conflict and terrorist activities. In this regard, it recommends emphasising the aims of education and ensuring child protection within madressahs through adequate monitoring mechanisms.

It is most unfortunate that Pakistan has failed to take adequate steps to prohibit and control this menace, especially when it does not cost a penny to do so. Our policymakers fail to realise that, due to fear, children often become silent and submit to violence without questioning.

But this is not to say that they are not affected. They often show signs of deep hurt: changes in emotional behaviour, deteriorating academic performance, low self-esteem.

This loss of dignity is psychologically damaging as the child starts to confuse love with pain, and anger with submission. ‘I punish you for your own sake. You must show remorse no matter how angry or humiliated you are.’ Gradually, it develops into a national psyche.

Adults physically punishing children soon realise that their ‘milder’ punishments stop working and thus escalate the violence. The ‘little smack’ thus becomes a spanking, and then a beating.

We all fail to appreciate that even a slap carries the message that violence is the appropriate response to conflict or unwanted behaviour. Aggression breeds aggression. Children subjected to physical punishment tend to become aggressive with their siblings and peers. During adolescence, they are likely to engage in aggressively anti-social behaviour in adolescence. As adults, they can become violent with their spouses and their own children, and commit violent crimes.

In recent years, Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan have enacted the Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Against Children Act. They are welcome moves.

The Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act, 2004, prohibits ill treatment of children, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare Act, 2010 prohibits corporal punishment “in all its kinds and manifestations” but it states that this is “as provided under Section 89”.

The latter two provinces, along with Balochistan and Islamabad, need detailed provisions on the subject, including on corporal punishment at home, inserted into their respective laws. All laws obviously need to be fully implemented and enforced.

We must remember that abolishing this practice will give our children the confidence and dignity that they deserve. Children are sick of being called ‘the future’. They want to enjoy their childhoods, free of violence, now.

The writer is an advocate of the Supreme Court.

aj@Jillani.org

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2018