Call for effective steps to address malnutrition

Call for effective steps to address malnutrition

Physical punishment tied to aggression, hyperactivity

Instead of learning good social behaviours, the beatings often have the opposite effect.

• "What people usually see after a spanking or beating is immediate compliance but in the long-term, they are really instilling fear in the child and children do act out of fear but not out of respect."

Regardless of the culture a child lives in, corporal punishment may do lasting psychological harm, German researchers say.

In a new study conducted in Tanzania, where physical punishment is considered normal, primary school students who were beaten by teachers or family members in the name of discipline tended to show more behaviour problems, not fewer, the researchers found.

"Parents aim to educate children through corporal punishment, but instead of learning good social behaviours, the beatings often have the opposite effect," said Tobias Hecker, a psychologist at the University of Konstanz, who led the study.

"Some people still believe, despite an overwhelming body of evidence, that corporal punishment in some cultures won't result in as many negative effects," George Holden said.

"But, as this study shows, it's difficult to find support for that argument," said Holden, a professor of psychology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who was not involved in the study.

Past research, mainly in industrialized countries, has found that children and teens who experience corporal punishment may "externalize" their negative experiences in the form of bad behaviour and emotional problems, Hecker and his colleagues write in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect.

To test whether the same is true in a culture where physical punishment is the norm and the law allows teachers to use it, the researchers interviewed 409 children between grades 2 and 7 at one private school in Tanzania, on the east coast of Africa.

Participants averaged 10.5 years old. Ninety-five percent of the boys and girls said they had been physically punished at least once in their lifetime by a teacher. The same percentage reported physical punishment from parents or caregivers.

The majority of children, 82 percent, had been beaten with sticks, belts or other objects and 66 percent had been punched, slapped or pinched.

Nearly one-quarter of the kids had experienced punishment so severe that they were injured.

"Children learn aggressive behaviour and become more aggressive toward other children," Hecker said.

Within the group, 21 percent of the boys and girls showed aggression problems through affirmative answers to questions like, "Have you ever taken things from others against their will?"

Nine percent of children had higher-than-normal levels of hyperactivity. About 11 percent of the kids showed less empathetic behaviour than peers who had not experienced physical punishment.

"From this study, it's difficult to generalize the results to milder forms of punishment, like spanking," said Christopher Ferguson of Stetson University in Florida.

"There's a difference between a parent who spanks a child in the context of a loving family and explains what the spanking is for compared with the parent who starts swatting because of some other non-related situation," said Ferguson, who was not involved in the research.

"The context is probably important but we really haven't dealt with it yet," he added.

Thirty-four countries in the world have laws against corporal punishment, according to the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children. In 1979, Sweden became the first country to make corporal punishment illegal.

"Certainly everyone wants to see physical abuse eliminated as much as possible," said Robert Larzelere of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.

But the new research can only point to a relationship between behavioural problems and physical force for punishment - not a causal link, said Larzelere, who was not part of the study.

He pointed out that the researchers did not measure the children's behaviour before corporal punishment occurred.

Hecker and his team acknowledge in their report that their study does not establish cause and effect. It could be argued that children with behavioural problems may be more likely to experience physical punishment.

At a minimum, they note, even if that is the case, their results show that corporal punishment does not improve children's behaviour.

Hecker said he hopes this new study will help bring about awareness in places like Tanzania, where corporal punishment still is widespread.

"What people usually see after a spanking or beating is immediate compliance," Hecker said. "But in the long-term, they are really instilling fear in the child and children do act out of fear but not out of respect."

"I think the most effective program to prevent violence is to focus on positive parenting," he said.

Published in Pakistan Today

How The Transgender Of Pakistan Help Save Kids

KARACHI – Begging and sex work are what transgender people in Pakistan too often end up doing.  But this also means that they are more likely to have information about the dark world of child sex trafficking.

Bindya Rana had the idea of tapping into this connection to find missing children.

“We are provided with pictures of the missing child, which we pass on to the transgender people in the areas where they beg and live," Rana explains, noting that some 2,000 transgender are on the case. "We direct them to search, and if they get any information to let us know.”

According to rights groups, 40,000 children go missing every year in Karachi. Many are kidnapped and sold in the sex industry. This year alone, the transgender activists have recovered more than 40 kidnapped or missing children in the city.

Rana says it’s a very rewarding work. “A transgender who helped discover a missing child started crying when the mother of that child hugged and kissed her.  She wasn't crying for fear of the kidnappers, but was overwhelmed by the love and respect she got for the first time in her life.”

Her team works in partnership with the Roshni Foundation, a non-government group that helps find missing children. Program officer Muhammad Ali says it’s a success.

“One of our transgender volunteers informed us that a kidnapped girl was being kept at a brothel where she was being exploited," Ali recalled. "The transgender person asked us to protect her and not reveal her identity.  We went to that place with the police and found not only that girl but three more girls aged between 12 and 14 who were being kept at the brothel.”

Careful eyes

But such success stories are rare. Fewer than 20% of children who went missing were found last year. 

The government says poverty and large families are part of the problem. Local Minister for Social Welfare Rubina Qaimkhani wants to see parents take better care of their children. “Parents must have vigilant eyes for their children," she said. "If we work together we can solve this problem.”

But there are also many children who don’t have parents around to watch them, including those who have ended up at Edhi shelter for homeless children, one of the largest such shelters in Pakistan.  

Doctor Rehana, who runs Edhi, is impressed with the unlikely program for transgender people get involved in finding missing children. “It’s a positive idea," he said. "If we Pakistanis use our mind for such positive ideas we can change a lot, but if we stayed on the negative path than nothing is going to change here.”

Rana says the transgender activists in the program work on a purely volunteer basis – they ask only for respect in return for their efforts.

Civil Society Demanded Increased Budgetary Allocations for Children

Civil Society Demanded Increased Budgetary Allocations for Children 

Islamabad, December 31, 2012: Child Rights Movement (CRM) a coalition of over 120 NGOs working for promotion and protection of Child Rights in the country demanded Government of Pakistan to increase budgetary allocations for Children during a report launch entitled “National & Provincial Budget Analysis from a Child Rights Perspective”

Delivering welcome remarks Ms Manizeh Bano Exective Director Sahil expressed concerns over poor budgetary allocations for children’s education, health and social welfare. 

Mr  Amer Ejaz Executive Director Center for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) said that  ‘The report reveals that that the total allocation for children for children specific programs has remained around 0.74% of the total public expenditure of the federal government in 2013-14 and less than 1% of GDP during the last four years’. A comparison of the portfolios of federal government and the provinces indicates that the federal government has been spending on children most of her funds in social welfare sector said Mr Ejaz. Whereas the provincial government education of children has the most funds. There is however no uniformity in the patterns of spending and policy making between the federating units. There is very little foreign assistance going into children specific programs. Moreover PSEs like railways, WAPDA and Defense are consuming a considerable amount of funds, leaving very little room for children specific programs he added.

Mr Abdullah Khoso from Save the Children said that ‘In order to deal with the dismal situation of children a number of steps need to be taken; like changes in the accounting and budgeting procedures of the government. UNCRC has strongly recommended that government of Pakistan should start budget tracking of child specific programs.

Dr Irshad Danish member Child Rights Movement said that the federal government needs to ensure that targeted allocations are made in the annual budget for health, education and social protection in accordance with the international conventions on children rights. For instance, UNCRC has recommended that allocation for education and health should be gradually increased to 6% and 15% of GDP respectively said Dr Danish. He added that, at present the allocations stand at 2.5% of GDP for education and 2.5% of GDP for health sector. As such there is a dire need to make affirmative intervention for protection of our children.

Dr Sher Ali, renowned educationist emphasized on implementation of Article 25-A allocating adequate resources to ensure Free and Compulsory education for children aged 5-16 across the country. 

Ms Ayesha Gulalai member National Assembly said that she will take up children related issues during National Assembly Sessions. She praised CRM for conducting children specific budget analysis.  PTI government is concerned over poor state of children in Pakistan said Ms Gulalai. She emphasized that the federal government needs to issue a uniform policy to ensure that the provisions of Article 35 of the constitution of Pakistan regarding “protecting the marriage, the family, the mother and the child” are enforced in all the provincial government. The provisions of this Article can be invoked to issue the policy guideline. Broadly speaking the policy needs to guide the provinces on ensuring that certain of the budget should go towards children specific programs means directly benefiting to children said Ms Gulali.

During launch of the report, CRM members urged government to allocate sufficient resources as per Concluding Observations and Recommendations of UN Committee on the rights of the child made during considering 3rd and 4th State Party Report of Pakistan. The Committee regretted over ‘extremely low’ budgetary allocations for children, which undermines Pakistan’s “prospects of meeting its objectives to gradually raise allocations to education to 5 percent of GDP by 2010 and to increase annually the allocations to the health sector by 16 percent until satisfactory health services and prevention measures are accomplished”.  

The CRM appealed to the Parliamentarians and particularly Speaker of the National Assembly and members of the Senate to urgently look into the pending legislation related to children and take immediate steps towards enactment of the pending bills and urgently establishing a body for the promotion and protection of child rights in the country at the national level.

A matter of life and death: Lawmakers pledge to nip malnutrition crisis in K-P

A matter of life and death: Lawmakers pledge to nip malnutrition crisis in K-P

Govt asked to conduct survey on child labour

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan - Govt asked to conduct survey on child labour

Much more needed to address plight of quake victims: HRCP

Press release

Much more needed to address plight of quake victims: HRCP

Lahore, September 27: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has voiced serious expressed concern over the plight of the people affected by this week’s earthquake in Balochistan and stressed that the victims are in need of much more attention and emergency relief than had been made available to them so far.

In a statement issued on Friday, HRCP said: “As more details become available of the devastation caused by this week’s earthquake in Balochistan, and in Awaran district in particular, it is apparent that the situation is considerably worse than previously thought. The casualties are believed to be much higher than had been initially reported. Thousands of people have been rendered homeless and rescue teams are yet to reach many affected areas of Balochistan. People in many places are said to be spending their nights in the open and are yet to receive food, water or medical supplies.

HRCP calls upon the Balochistan government to spare no effort to help the victims of the disaster and the federal government to immediately support the provincial government in whatever it needs help with, both in terms of rescue and emergency relief and for longer-term rehabilitation and recovery efforts.

HRCP also wishes to express its strong dismay over Baloch insurgents’ attempts to hamper rescue and relief operations. The Commission particularly disapproves of an attack on a helicopter carrying the head of Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) chief in the affected region and earnestly hopes that the insurgents would desist from exploiting the stricken population’s misery and be more considerate of their humanitarian needs at this difficult time.”

Zohra Yusuf

Chairperson