Elimination of corporal punishment in schools is essential

Satish Kumar Sarma,

Former Head of the Department of Economics, Biswanath College,Kalyanpur, Biswanath Chariali.

Corporal punishment in schools is banned in India, yet it continues rampantly, particularly in government and low-cost private schools. A study on public schools in Gurugram by the NGO Agrasar released in November, 2018 estimated that over 80% of its sample children were beaten in school. In 2015, longitudinal study by Young Lives in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana concluded that 93% of 8-year-olds and 68% of 15-year-olds recalled corporal punishment.

It may be mentioned here that younger children are more likely to get beaten while older children are more likely to be humiliated. Boys receive harsher physical punishments, and girls are more likely to be verbally abused. Teachers not only beat children themselves but authorize other children, namely monitors, to beat up fellow classmates. Further, they use it as a mechanism to settle disputes. For instance, asking one girl to slap another if she called her mad, as a way of offering retribution.

Often, parents don’t just view it as an effective means of disciplining, but also actively recommend it to teachers, in an attempt to improve their wards’ academic performance. Agrasar found that 91% parents approved the use of corporal punishment and 70% are further likely to punish children for being punished at school. This leaves majority of children with little support at home, particularly in mild instances of slapping and spanking. Children with possible learning and other disorders like pica are particularly vulnerable as they are indiscriminately beaten in an attempt to improve their habits or learning outcomes.

Corporal punishment does not effectively discipline, but leaves children distressed and ashamed. It has detrimental effects like lowering self-confidence, and negatively affects school attendance and classroom participation. Most importantly, it leads to normalization of violence and encourages aggressive forms of masculinities particularly among boys.

Boys, who received more beatings both at home and in school, addressed their loss of self-esteem by beating other weaker boys and girls. This led to more punishments by the teacher, creating a spiral of violence. Verbal abuse was equally harmful.

Corporal punishment sends confusing messages to children about notions of love, control, pain and autonomy. It legitimizes inflicting pain on someone you love to control or discipline them, on the grounds of it being necessary for their own well-being. Remorse then should be felt by the one at the receiving end, not the perpetrator.

Relationships thus get based on control, not on building autonomy through positive engagement and self-regulation. Legislation alone is not enough to eliminate corporal punishment. It needs to be supported by building a public discourse. Particularly in context of schools, it requires investing in teachers by training them in alternative classroom management strategies and constructive solutions to challenging classroom situations. Schools must be motivated to encourage self-regulation by using student bodies to inculcate adherence to rules and manners.

Systemic issues, like under-staffed and under-resourced public schools with overcrowded classrooms which put additional pressure on teachers, must be addressed. Teacher training should include sessions to sensitize them to everyday realities of children coming from poor and disempowered families, like lack of resources to buy school supplies or limited academic help at home to complete homework.

Stopping corporal punishment is not just about direct physical harm it causes, but about a culture of violence that it perpetuates. It is about delegitimizing violence as an effective response in situations of unacceptable behavior. It’s time we recognized that we cannot lose control of our own behavior and aim to teach children restraint.