Law vs corporal punishment for children urged

ILOILO CITY – A world-wide organization dedicated to working with children and families to overcome poverty and injustice is advocating against corporal punishment for children in instilling discipline.

World Vision, a child-focused, relief, development, and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children and poor families said that corporal punishment on children is counterproductive and must be shunned by the elders.

Elnora Avarientos of World Vision said the group is advocating non-violent discipline on children and supports the proposed congressional measure House Bill 4455 or the “Positive and Nonviolent Discipline of Children Act.”

The bill titled “An Act Promoting Positive and Non-Violent Discipline of Children, was authored by Representative Bernadette Herrera of the Party List Bagong Henerasyon and Representative Susan Yap of the 2nd district of Tarlac, among others.

It was passed in the House of Representatives in August 2011. However, its counterpart in the Senate, SB 873 filed by Senator Jinggoy Estrada and the transmitted version of the approved House bill had been pending in the Committee of Youth, Women and Family Relations chaired by Senator Pia Cayetano.

The bill seeks for the promotion of positive discipline, or an approach seeking to immediately correct the behavior of a child, to teach a lesson, to give tools that build self discipline and emotional control, and to build a good relationship with the child by understanding the child’s needs and capabilities at various ages and the behavior that is usual for a child at each stage of development.

World Vision said they are against corporal punishment or the use of physical, emotional and psychological form of disciplining our children as it is not only a violation of children’s rights to respect for physical integrity, human dignity and equal protection under the law.

On the other hand, World Vision is hosting a four-day 2012 Visayas-wide Children’s Congress starting May 21 in Iloilo City.

Participated by more 100 children as future leaders of the country, the Children’s Congress here is expected to hear the voices of children from 10 to 15 years old representing the three Visayas regions about their families, communities and country.

They will tackle issues on how children will enjoy good health, how they will be educated for life, experience love of God and their neighbors, are cared for, protected and participating.

The children will also commit to actively participate to the call to end preventable child deaths, to exercise their right to be taken cared of during the children’s congress. (Lydia C. Pendon)