Adults urged to speak out against violent discipline of children | Leading stories

With the latest Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) showing that 76 percent of Jamaican children between the ages of one and 14 experience “violent discipline,” Nicole Patrick Shaw, the new chair of the National Child Month Committee , one favor to grant: ask about Children’s Month.

That is, more “villages” in Jamaica are acting in accordance with the National Children’s Month theme for 2024, which is ‘Stand up! To pronounce! Protect the rights of our children!’, especially when they are punished violently.

Violent discipline is any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression.

It is striking that according to the MICS, approximately seven in ten children have experienced psychological aggression as a form of child discipline.

After announcing her appointment to lead the 70-year commission and champion a cause for the nation’s children, Patrick Shaw noted that children and young people “although they may not be able to pay a bill ” have the same general human rights as adults and specific rights that recognize their special needs.

“With our society paralyzed by crime and violence, especially in schools, we must do more. We need to be more compassionate, empathetic and supportive of each other, especially the children and the vulnerable,” Shaw said.

“Stand up! Don’t be passive in protecting the nation’s children. Don’t be that guy who enforces the ‘Sighted and Blind’. Hearing and Deaf culture. Stop drinking water and pretending to mind your own business Our responsibilities as Jamaicans extend beyond caring for our individual children and family members. We, the citizens, must care for every child. Speak out for the rights of our children. For too long, the silence of some citizens has become deafening, so much so that they hear nothing when their neighbors or friends abuse their children, leaving them to cope on their own. These children never forget and become adults who are broken butterflies, unable to cope to fly. Let’s do more to highlight and address the needs of the children who need to be protected,” she said.

Shaw was speaking at the launch of Child Month at the Institute of Jamaica Lecture Hall in downtown Kingston last Thursday.

It was the Planning Institute of Jamaica, in partnership with the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), that launched the recent MICS findings.

The latest MICS survey, conducted in 2022, provides the most up-to-date data for Jamaica, which the government can use to take stock and make decisions on behalf of children.

Troubling data

For her part, guest speaker Olga Isaza, Jamaica Representative to UNICEF, expressed her concerns about disturbing data in the latest MICS.

“Among other things, let me highlight two areas where we all need to do much more to overcome the complex barriers that prevent children from realizing their full potential. In terms of education, UNICEF is concerned that only 86 percent of young people aged 19 to 21 have completed secondary school. And when you consider the socio-economic analysis, the findings show that 97 percent of children in the richest households have completed upper secondary school, compared to 75 percent of children in the poorest households. Where are the other children? We cannot afford to leave any of them behind,” Isaza said.

“Jamaica has done well in areas such as vaccination rates in the first year of life; 89 percent of children between 12 and 23 months had received all basic vaccinations before the survey. Education also has some bright spots, especially in primary education: 99 percent of children complete primary school. The data also showed that 95 percent of adolescents between the ages of 17 and 19 completed lower secondary school. These are achievements that we should, without a doubt, celebrate and preserve,” she said.

Using gender lenses, the MICS data showed that boys are generally at greater risk than girls of being out of school. Thirteen percent of boys aged 15 to 16 are not in school, compared to about seven percent of girls in this age group. In addition, three percent of boys who attend lower secondary school are at risk of dropping out.

“The children who are missing out on their opportunity for education require everyone to stand up, speak out and take action to prevent them from drifting towards an unproductive life in society or a life of crime. The data is available not only to advocate, but also to implement evidence-based decisions and programs that will effectively reach these at-risk children and adolescents,” Isaza said.

“For some people, or should I say for many people, this exercise is a challenge because we had to block out the events or their impact, or because we were told that this was the way, the only way. Subsequently, violence was naturalized, sometimes supported or explained as an expression of affection or as an example of good parenting skills. This is not true. There are other scientifically proven, healthy and loving ways to raise our children. Unfortunately, much of the violence begins and continues to take place in the home, school and communities – the places that should be responsible for protecting and caring for every single child,” she said.

The economic situation of households has an even more dire influence on the type of discipline a child will experience. As the data shows, 79 percent of children in the poorest households experience violent discipline, compared to the already alarming 67 percent of children in the richest households.

“Even if physical punishment decreases as the child grows older, from 70 percent for three- to four-year-olds to 46 percent for children aged ten to fourteen, the level of psychological aggression remains constant for children. children in these age groups approximately 70 percent. “This indicates a dire continuum of harsh treatment from early childhood to adolescence for many children,” she said.

Duty to protect children

Lead sponsor representative Lauri-Ann Samuels, executive director of the National Baking Company Foundation, also noted that she agrees with Patrick Shaw that villages are needed to act in accordance with the 2024 theme of National Children’s Month.

“When I thought about this year’s theme, I came to the conclusion that these words inherently give us a duty to protect the rights of children. I’m sure we’re all familiar with the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” A phrase that has been recited repeatedly since we were all children, but which I believe still holds true today,” said Samuels.

“You would say that it used to be easier to track down our children because we only had word of mouth in the immediate environment where our children grew up. However, the size of the village has changed, right? It has changed,” she said.

Samuels said “family” is one of the best solutions to address the challenges facing the nation’s youth.

“Families are the fundamental pillars of society and are tasked with socializing children into model leaders who will ultimately shape our society. But parents can’t do this alone, so we need to expand the context of the family to include all of us, because we all have a role to play. in influencing the growth and improvement of our children,” she said.

Also fitting with the theme of National Child Month 2023: ‘Speak up! To pronounce! Protect the rights of our children,” she said the rights of children such as basic human rights, right to education, health care, social services and freedom of movement are covered.

She reiterated that protecting the rights of children requires a multifaceted approach, raising awareness and advocating for policies that prioritize the well-being of children.

“But protection goes beyond just meeting basic needs. It means empowering our children to have a voice in decisions that affect their lives. It means listening to their concerns, respecting their opinions and involving them in the processes that shape their future,” said Samuels.

“We must be advocates, allies and champions for children everywhere,” she said.

Samuels noted that with advances in technology and its availability to children, it was clear that it has become more difficult to spot their New Age challenges or when they are doing it wrong.

She noted that 2024 marks the 35th anniversary of the Geneva Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most universally accepted human rights instrument that brings together in a single document the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of children and the responsibility of adults towards children.

Numerous national events and activities are planned for National Children’s Month 2024, including a church service on May 5 at Saxthorpe Methodist Church, National Children’s Day on May 17, National Day of Prayer on May 29 and Care Package Distribution Day on May 31.

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