In Pakistan, corporal punishment must be criminalized
On Sept. 5, 17 year old Hunain Bilal did not return home from school. He was beaten to death by his teacher in Lahore for his failure to memorize a lesson.
Hunain’s murder is just one of countless incidents of assault on children’s lives and dignity in schools in Pakistan. In the province of Punjab, 89% of schools (both public and private), reportedly employ physical punishment as a disciplinary tool, according to Plan International.
Earlier this year, a teacher at a government school in Punjab’s Lodhran district sought to ‘discipline’ a boy by forcing him to eat grass; in another incident, a young girl in Sharaqpur was tied up with rope by her teacher and suspended from a tree. For these children, sanctuaries of learning are unsafe havens of fear and humiliation, where persons entrusted with the noble task of nurturing young minds become their assailants.
Corporal punishment is the most common form of violence against children across the world, inflicted in the purported interest of a child at home, school, the workplace and places of detention. Three out of four children aged between 2 – 4 years around the world continue to experience violent discipline by care-givers on a regular basis, according to UNICEF.
Under the UN Child Rights Convention (CRC), any disciplinary action entailing physical or mental violence, injury, abuse, torture cruelty, or inhuman or degrading treatment violates the right to life and dignity of a child. 194 countries around the world have ratified the CRC, and are now under an obligation to ban corporal punishment in all settings.
Only 53 countries, however, have complied with such obligation. Nepal is the only country in South Asia to have done so.
Pakistan ratified the CRC in 1990. In the near three decades since ratification, Pakistan is yet to impose an all-encompassing prohibition on physical punishment practiced on minors. The law on the subject is inconsistent.
The child protection regime across Pakistan grants government agencies the mandate to undertake appropriate measures to protect children against physical and psychological violence and neglect. Federal and provincial legislation governing the right to free education of children prohibits corporal punishment in government schools, but does not criminalize it.
The law governing child protection in Pakistan must be reformed and implemented, to completely prohibit and criminalize corporal punishment of any form in all kinds of settings, while removing all such provisions from the law that permit and condone violence against children for any reason or justification.
Sahar Zareen Bandial
Significantly, the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), as amended in 2015, criminalizes wilful assault, ill treatment, neglect and psychological injury of a child, with a maximum three year imprisonment. Yet, under section 89 of the PPC, parents and other persons in charge of a child who, in good faith and for a child’s benefit, engage in violent disciplining are exempt from criminal liability (except for actions intended/known to cause death or grievous hurt). Whipping and the physical beating of incarcerated minors in prisons and other institutions of detention also continues to be permitted under the law.
This exemption provided in the law presumes that those inflicting physical and corporal punishment act in the interest of a minor. Yet, studies across the board have shown that violent disciplining, be it physical or psychological, has long-lasting negative consequences for a child, leading to impaired cognition, mental illness, increased aggression, anti-social behavior and problematic relationships with parents.
In Pakistan, around 35,000 students reportedly drop out of high school every year on account of corporal punishment according to the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child. Its ramifications extend beyond the individual child — the practice of corporal punishment has a direct impact on the incidence of violence in society.
According to a study conducted by McGill University of 400,000 youth in 88 countries, there exists a direct correlation between the imposition of a complete ban on corporal punishment and decreased levels of fighting among the youth.
It is commendable that the government of Sindh has passed legislation imposing a near-complete ban on the use of corporal punishment, defined broadly to include mental abuse, and other treatment, which may belittle, humiliate, denigrate, threaten, scare or ridicule a child.
A similar law has been promulgated in Giligit-Baltistan. These laws, however, not only remain unimplemented, but also leave unregulated the home, where parents‘ ability to chastise their children through violence remains unchecked.
The law governing child protection in Pakistan must be reformed and implemented, to completely prohibit and criminalize corporal punishment of any form in all kinds of settings, while removing all such provisions from the law that permit and condone violence against children for any reason or justification.
It is important to note that efforts to ban corporal punishment will not bear fruit through legal reform alone. The practice of disciplining children through violence is buttressed and perpetuated through cultural values and mindsets with 70% of teachers in government and private schools in Pakistan supporting corporal punishment, according to Alif Ailaan, a local nonprofit organization.
A significant proportion of parents believe that a degree of physical punishment is necessary for most children, and this mindset must be countered to secure the life and well-being of our children.
*Sahar Zareen Bandial is an Advocate of the High Courts and a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law, LUMs. She has a keen interest in gender issues and has worked extensively in the area of legislative drafting.
