Violence against children occurs everywhere in the world every day. In 2007, the Ministry of Women and Child Development released a study on Child Abuse in the country. The study found that 2 out of every 3 children reported being physically abused. Following abuse at home, schools were the next largest environment where abuse was reported. Most children did not report the matter to anyone. Children are being exposed to violence constantly whether in homes or schools. Violence takes the form of bullying, corporal punishment, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, gender discrimination, teasing.

Taking forward “Learn without Fear” campaign, Plan India in association with its partner NGO, Childhood Enhancement through Training and Action (CHETNA) organized a stakeholder’s meet for promoting and ensuring safe violence free environment in schools on 21st May 2010.

Objectives

1. To raise awareness on the issue of violence against children in schools in Delhi.

2. To involve all the stakeholders like children, teachers, principals, government and non government organizations, national and state child protection agencies and police in sharing challenges and perspectives in responding to issue of violence in schools.

3. To discuss the status of various decisions and rules made by national and state level child protection agencies against the violence in schools.

Recommendations

The panel members and the audience came up with the various recommendations that need to be enforced for ensuring the protection of children. They are:

1. As the masses are not aware about the Child Welfare Committee and its working thus students should be made aware in schools about the CWCs. Police, NGO’s, parents and children should bring the cases of violence against children to CWC.

2. It is very important to save a child’s life and self-esteem. Police should take action against those who violates a child’s right under the multiple sections of different acts like IPC, Juvenile Justice Act and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act.

3. Mr .Lov Verma said that he wants to start more and more advisory bodies and they seek the help of NGO’s in monitoring the status of the circulars sent to schools in their areas and he also recommended that there is a need wider consultation also.

4. DCPCR will now focus on Right to Education and the commission now aims at working towards safeguarding the best interest of children.

5. “All India Parents Association” is trying to involve more and more parents in their association and their major focus is spreading awareness about the issue amongst the parents. They consider Parents Teachers (PTI) meetings as an important thing which can solve major part of the issue. Though it is important to have a validly elected PTI in schools most of the private schools try not to implement PTI’s. Thus the major concern of the association is taking this issue to court and to increase the moral of the parents by giving them adequate information.

6. Plan India is focusing on increasing their network in those states in which they have introduced Learn without Fear Campaign and are aiming to reach as much schools as possible.

7. Safety, protection and participation are every child’s rights. As 60% of violence cases are reported in family therefore there is a need of making parents aware about their roles and responsibilities in safeguarding a child’s identity.

8. Children’s Advisory Board members should expand their network to more of M.C.D schools because that is where most cases of corporal punishments are reported.

9. Police officers in every police station must be trained in handling the cases of children who are the victim of violence in schools in most effective manner with the help of other government and legal bodies.

10. NGO’s must join hands in spreading awareness about the issues and in organizing consultations for children, parents and all the other stakeholders.

To read the full report please click here

This report summarises the work carried out by Plan campaigners across 60 countries* during the first year of Learn Without Fear. It is based on a monitoring and evaluation questionnaire and two pilot projects.

Key Findings:

• Plan campaigners helped to improve laws in Ecuador and Nicaragua. Consequently, 5,554,877 school students are better protected from violence than before Learn Without Fear.
• In Bolivia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania, Plan campaigners are leading efforts to pass bills on school violence related issues. When they succeed, 105,175,558 more children will have their right to a violence-free education protected by law.

Progress indicators:

• The governments of 30 countries have invited Plan to work with them to stop school violence.
• On average, 1,354 children took part in the design of the campaign in each country, making it truly child-centred.
• In total, 286,216 children have been involved in Learn Without Fear campaign initiatives.
• Plan has trained 8,289 teachers across 26 countries on ‘positive discipline’.
• Plan has trained 11,813 public servants on school violence related issues.
• Plan has invested €2.55 million (US $3.78 million) on Learn Without Fear in the southern hemisphere.

Research:

• In a study conducted in schools in Ghana, Guinea-Bissau and the Philippines, 16.2 per cent of all participants were inappropriately touched by their teachers and 26 per cent by other students in the 12 months prior to the study.
• 94 per cent of Peruvians and 71 per cent of Kenyans think their governments should outlaw school violence.

On analysis of the results, Plan has also found the following:

• Including child rights and peaceful coexistence principles in the national school curriculum is of utmost importance – it not only helps reduce school violence rates but also ensures that children grow up better able to appreciate the value of peace and democracy as citizens in adult life.
• Teachers need to reward positive behaviour and academic work – physically chastising students is demoralising and ends up increasing levels of violence.
• School violence reflects violence in society as a whole, and therefore an appropriate response needs to be holistic, participatory and measurable.

Click here to download “LWF Progress Report”