Essay on Corporal Punishment in School
Repeatedly striking a child on hands or across the buttocks with cane or ruler, making him stand in sun in hands up position, or making a student stand in chair position along the wall are some of the illustrations of corporal punishment that is carried out in educational institutions across the world. It is a practice that has been followed by societies since ages. The quantum and method of punishment is decided by the one who is in authority and most of the times happen to be the teacher, or headmaster, or any other non-teaching staff. The question arises that is it justified to use such kind of acts of violence in the name of instilling discipline among the young minds.
In India, corporal punishment has been banned by the Supreme Court of India in one of its judgement in the year 2000. Section 23 of new Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 safeguards the rights of a child against any kind of brutality. A punishment of imprisonment up to six months can be sentenced to the accused with or without fine. This act was made to check the rising cases of criminality and brutality against children. But there are clauses in the act that bring teachers and parents under scrutiny if any kind of violent or irrational behaviour comes to light.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The punishment is prevalent in many parts of the world. Europe, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa had completely checked the practice and no such punishments are seen in these countries. Such restrictions are also effective in Russia. However, in several states of USA, the corporal punishment is legal. Though, a decline in rates and severity of such incidences has been noticed in recent years. In UK, the act is strictly banned in government as well as private schools. There are many other countries in the world, where the law has been adopted but due to lax execution, the desired results are far from the reach.
In India, around 17 states have implemented the law to ban corporal punishments in the school. But as said earlier the proper execution of the law is missing. This has lead to consistent cases of corporal punishments coming into light. In some cases, the extent of humiliation has been felt on such a large extent that the child had ended up his life. Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh are the worst performers. The practice is prevalent not only in rural or remote areas but in affluent schools claiming to representing the epitome of the society.
There is a large section of society that justifies such actions and considers it as an essential and effective manner of creating discipline among the children. According to them, punishing a child hardly on the spot, checks his activities in the future and prevents him from repeating the same mistake. However, such arguments are irrational and hold no solid grounds. Studies have shown that spanking or punishing a child yields no good results. Rather, it may mar the personality of the child for rest of his life. Such punishments can have detrimental effects on the child’s psychology and can result in development of stressed or low self esteemed personalities.
School is the place of learning. Here, the present of the child is moulded in such a way so as to carve his bright future. Children learn more by seeing. They imbibe whatever is presented to them. Discipline can be instilled by behaving in such manner in front of kids. Punishing them and implementing hard rules will only cease their overall growth.