Some of us are lucky in our childhood days to get parents who understood us. But others, the unlucky ones had a rough childhood... They have been abused either physically or physiologically or sexually. Sadly these abused ones constitute the majority rather than the minority group in India.Most of us(including me) had been smacked in our childhood days (sometimes by cane, belts, slippers, etc.) in the name of 'disciplining'. But the sad fact is that there is a huge amount of scientific evidence contrary to the common belief that physical punishment encourage discipline in children. Sometimes, it is the parents' frustrations and their inability to raise their children that finds a manifestation in the form of beating them or causing physical harm rather than 'disciplining'.
Indian society, being a society with a high power distance and a patriarchal structure, parents consider their children as their property and assume a freedom to treat them as they like. This not only results in adoption of harsher methods of disciplining by parents and teachers, but also results in very little opposition to this harshness.
According to the survey conducted by Ministry of Women and Child Development on Child Abuse in India - 2007, 2 out of every 3 children in India are physically abused. Parents followed by Teachers are the major perpetrators. And a Belief in "Spare the rod and Spoil the child" is one of the things that these thugs have used to justify their acts. But in any society, such a high level of physical abuse amongst children is not acceptable and no society, which values its children, will not and should not tolerate this.
According to the survey conducted by Ministry of Women and Child Development on Child Abuse in India - 2007, 2 out of every 3 children in India are physically abused. Parents followed by Teachers are the major perpetrators. And a Belief in "Spare the rod and Spoil the child" is one of the things that these thugs have used to justify their acts. But in any society, such a high level of physical abuse amongst children is not acceptable and no society, which values its children, will not and should not tolerate this.
Hope things atleast change in the next generation!!!
[Just to make things clear.. Physical abuse is defined as beating manifested as kicking, slapping,punishing through corporal punishment, beating by family members and others including peers, police,employer, caregivers, etc.]
2 comments:
When strong has the upper hand over the weak, it's the duty of the strong to behave responsibly.
Personally, light physical punishment has helped me staying on the course of doing right. It's always better than the harder way of learning from one's own mistake, that too at a time when we can't differentiate the right from wrong.
The problem starts when the strong starts to abuse the power.
@ Sreeram,
yes da.. there is a fine line between punishment and abuse.. But when i think back of my school days, a lot of times it has been physical abuse in the name of punishment... There lies the problem da...
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