Child protection law: You can’t cut yourself just because the knife is golden

One cannot but commend the government’s intention to bring in an amendment to the Penal Code to protect child rights by making physical and non-physical punishment against children illegal. The Bill on the amendment is being debated these days in Parliament.

However, the law alone would not protect the rights of the children. The authorities have to look into the causes of the problem and the repercussions of the new law from a sociological point of view and avert issues that would be further harmful to the children and sometimes ruin their entire future if the law is implemented blindly. 

The latest amendment to the Penal Code provides for the making of all forms of punishments, both physical and psychological, meted out to children under 18 years of age illegal. This applies to parents, guardians and teachers of children alike. The Bill for the amendment states:

“Whoever, having the custody, charge, or care of any person under eighteen years of age, commits (a) as a measure of punishment or correctional method, an act for which physical force is used, with knowledge that such act is likely to cause some degree of pain or discomfort however light; or (b) non-physical act with knowledge that it is likely to cause humiliation however light, commits the offence of corporal punishment”.

Then it explains the punishment for the offence:

“Whoever commits the offence of corporal punishment in respect of children shall on conviction be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or with a fine which may extend to one hundred thousand rupees, or with both and may also be ordered to pay compensation of an amount determined by court after considering the victim impact statement filed by the National Authority for the Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses established under the Assistance to and Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses Act, No. 10 of 2023, to the person in respect of whom the offence was committed for the injuries caused to such person”.

This applies to the children with a physical or mental disability or those children who are in the custody of state authority or a training school, a school hostel, a children’s home or a daycare centre, with the offenders being subjected to much severe punishments. 

However, people would tend to punish children from tomorrow, with or without the knowledge of the passage of this Bill. We have a tradition to punish erring children, and it’s traditionally hailed as claiming that both the soup that is prepared without stirring and the child raised without punishment are prone to spoil. Even several Parliamentarians justified the punishments of children by parents during the debate on the Bill. 

Parents or family members and teachers are, in most cases, punishing children for impulsive reactions such as sudden anger or frustration, and not really with a motive of correction. This is more so in respect of uneducated or less educated parents. Members of poor families who are barraged with economic and social pressures sometimes give vent to their negative emotions, releasing them on innocent children. Some parents and teachers punish children with the pure intention of disciplining them.

With the new law coming into force, these parents and teachers with similar norms and impulsive reactions might end up in jail if other family members or neighbours lodge complaints with the relevant authorities, despite whatever lofty ideals are attached to the law. If the breadwinner of the child concerned is put behind bars, the same child would be further victimised; sometimes the lives of such children would irreparably be ruined.

Teachers these days express their apprehensions over the new law, arguing that every action they would take to discipline a child might be deemed as “an act for which physical force is used, with knowledge that such act is likely to cause some degree of pain or discomfort however light; or (b) non-physical act with knowledge that it is likely to cause humiliation however light”. The assurance given by Prime Minister Dr Harini Amarasuruya, who is also the education minister, on Sunday that the new law did not target teachers is far below in capacity in allaying such fears.

If the law is to be implemented with its exalted ideals and without disturbing the normal life of the children, parents and the teachers, the authorities would have to launch a massive awareness campaign among parents, covering even remote villages, while implementing a similar training programme for teachers, wardens of hostels and guardians of homes for children. As the saying goes, you cannot cut yourself just because the knife is golden. 

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