When Asma Parveen, a young teacher, joined the Government Girls’ Primary School in Molvi Khair Mohd, district Sanghar, she was appalled by the school’s flagrant use of corporal punishment as a disciplinary device.

Worse still, beating a child was not used as a last resort for serious transgressions; in fact, Asma saw children being punished for things as minor as talking in the class, asking innocent questions or simply day dreaming. Over time, a look of fright and misery came to be etched on the children’s faces even while they came outside to play and participate in sports and games.

The breaking point came when, during a celebration taking place in the school, a young girl was caught in the act of stealing some money from a teacher’s purse. In order to teach the child a lesson which she would never forget, the headmistress brought the child on stage and gave her such a thrashing that the poor child fainted with the pain and shock.

The rest of the children were made to line up in front of the stage and watch this horrific act. It seemed that the teachers too, were enjoying the treatment being meted out to the child.Asma felt nauseous looking at the horrific scenario and decided that she could not keep quiet anymore.

She quietly started counselling the women of her community regarding the evils of corporal punishment and explained to them the benefits of dealing with children in a friendly manner. She told them that beating children and taunting them would not necessarily discipline; rather, it would make them retaliate in anger. Her initial efforts were not met well by the people who were apprehensive about why a young woman would come to their doorstep to tell them how to bring up their children. Yet, she did not lose hope and attended a training session on Child Rights and Gender Protection.

During the training, she learnt more about the rights of children. Keeping the findings in mind, Asma then renewed her work of mobilising the community and now managed to make some headway. She gained the confidence of her community elders who supported her in passing on the message of children’s rights to the parents of her students.

Once the parents realised that the norms which they thought were acceptable were actually barbaric and that being beaten and taunted in school on a regular basis was hampering their child’s emotional well being, they started to change their outlook. Now they were on Asma’s side and she was happy to have made a breakthrough on the personal front; now she had to handle the school.

In school, Asma tactfully shared her experience at the Child Rights and Gender Protection training during an informal conversation with her headmistress. She also told her that training was being held for all headmistresses of government schools in the district. She praised her headmistress for being a strong leader and encouraged her to attend this training to network with others; this tactful approach worked and the lady made it a point to attend a training session herself. The training compelled her to reflect upon her behaviour with children and the negative practices taking place at her school, which she had allowed for so long.

After the training concluded she returned to her school and imparted a stern lecture to all her teachers, forbidding them from either beating the students or screaming at them.

The changes in the school were visible in a month’s time and during a monitoring visit, officers got to interact with happy, confident and bright children.

Happy as the children are, perhaps it is Asma who is the happiest of them all.

The writer is an M&E/Communications Officer at Right To Play, Provincial Office, Sindh.