CHILD abuse has been one of those topics that I have shied away from over the years. I have personally felt uncomfortable writing about something that has been so normalised while I was growing up. Phrases like “when yuh don’t hear, you does feel” and “spare the rod, spoil the child” are not unfamiliar to me or many (if not all) of my relatives, friends, and neighbours. It was not abuse, it was simply being disciplined-or so we thought.

To illustrate what I mean about child abuse being normalised, I thought about how problematic it is that my first reaction after reading a recent report containing child abuse statistics was ‘I’m sure the amount of abuse is much, much greater,’ instead of being instantly appalled. What I read was an address by Minister of Human Services and Social Security Dr. Vindhya Persaud, who stated that there were nearly 2,000 reported cases of child abuse in only the first six months of the year.

In retrospect I find that very problematic, because it illustrates how normalised child abuse is, or, at least how normalised it is to me. Let me, however, hasten to add that I do not blame our parents, grandparents, or any of our fore-parents for perpetuating the cycle of abuse and even obscuring it as discipline. While I believe that we are all individuals who possess human agency, I also believe that violence in our society is more of a systemic issue. That, therefore, means that I believe that child abuse is a deeper problem than a parent wanting a child to be obedient and well-disciplined.

In the United States, for example, research from the American Psychological Association has linked corporal punishment in African-American communities to racial trauma. In a 2017 article written by Dr. Stacey Patton, it is argued that once in America, parents who were enslaved were pressured into shaping their children into docile field workers and to teach them proper deference and demeanour in front of whites-so that they could remain unharmed.

“Child deaths, brutal whippings and torture, sexual abuse, and being sold away from their relative for the rest of their lives were constant features of plantation life,” she highlighted.

Later, she added: “… when you belong to a group of people who are in constant fear of their lives and those of their children, then it is understandable how that trauma can cause parents to interpret cruelty as love, protection, and responsible parenting, even when proven counterintuitive.”

I cannot say for sure whether that reality in the U.S. is exactly applicable to us in Guyana, but in the local context, I invite you to think about our existing 1876 Education Act that was last amended in 1976. Section 94(1) of this Act says: “For serious or repeated offences, corporal punishment may be administered by the headteacher or by an assistant teacher over 20 years of age and authorised by him.”

The existing Education Act provides for corporal punishment and one can even argue that the Act could be microcosmic of how permissible and entrenched this form of abuse, proffered as discipline, has been – at least when the Act was crafted and throughout its lifetime.

In all fairness, though, relatively recent efforts have been made to change this. A few years ago, the Ministry of Education introduced a policy that prohibits using this form of punishment as a disciplinary method when dealing with children in schools.

Additionally, the 2014 Education Bill- which was not passed but is expected to be tabled again this year and could replace the existing Education Act- has dropped corporal punishment as a method of discipline. And, in June 2018, Guyana enacted the Juvenile Justice Act 2018 to prohibit all corporal punishment of children in penal institutions and as a sentence for a crime.

Still, there is a need to change hearts and minds with these legislative amendments (or planned legislative amendments). Just a cursory look at social media is needed whenever children’s corporal punishment is the ‘hot topic’; I guarantee that there will be raging debates for and against this punishment.

I believe, however, that we have to be able to honestly interrogate how problematic corporal punishment is and think about how we conceptualise child abuse- including the physical, verbal, sexual, and emotional spheres.

Even though lashing out might feel like the most appropriate or familiar thing to do, there are other ways of engaging children or sanctioning them that can, perhaps, be just as effective. Alternatives to corporal punishment include placing a child in a ‘time-out’ or letting the child lose privileges to something valuable, such as an electronic device (phone or tablet, for example).

These two can, however, be perceived as acts of punishment. As such, research shows that employing empathy towards a child’s feelings, recognising and as much as reasonably possible meeting the child’s needs, and calmly trying to resolve situations are good alternatives to punishing a child.

To report any child abuse, please call the 914 hotline.

If you would like to connect with me to discuss this column or any of my previous works, feel free to email me at vish14ragobeer@gmail.com