Not much has been done by any of the governments to ensure that this good law is implemented in letter and in spirit.
LAHORE: This is with the reference to a recent incident of corporal punishment involving a minor student and her teacher in Lahore. This is not the only incident of corporal punishment published in newspapers and the fact is that many similar unfortunate stories take place but go unreported in the media. Research shows that corporal punishment is the main reason behind students dropping out of school. In 2005, the Punjab government officially banned corporal punishment in all government schools in the province. While this was a good step in itself, it did not institute a mechanism to monitor whether the law was being followed in schools.
It should be mentioned here that no serious step has been taken by government departments responsible for training teachers to enhance their capacity to deal with students using methods that employ alternatives to corporal punishment. Furthermore, nothing has been done to train teachers to see themselves more in the role of facilitators for their students. Pakistan is signatory to the United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child whose Article 19 states that children have “the right to be protected from being hurt and mistreated, physically or mentally”. It is the responsibility of governments to take administrative and legislative measures to ensure that children are properly cared for and protected from violence, abuse and neglect.
During the last days of the PPP government, the National Assembly unanimously passed the Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill, which was not passed by the Senate and hence, it lapsed and could not become law. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa passed a law in 2010 called the Child Protection and Welfare Act, which banned corporal punished and the Sindh Assembly has done the same. However, as said earlier, not much has been done by any of the governments to ensure that this good law is implemented in letter and in spirit.
Iftikhar Mubarik
Published in The Express Tribune, February 6th, 2014.
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