• Save the Children Sweden secretary Elisabeth Dahlin giving a progress report on the corporal punishment ban. Picture by GETHSEMANE MWIZABI

By GETHSEMANE MWIZABI –

N Zambia, it is common and considered as a cultural thing to smack children into obedience.

Parents or guardians, majority of who profess to be Christian, feel obligated to physically beat children as a way of instilling discipline in them.

Hence the saying, ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’.

Even, though corporal punishment was banned in schools, several years ago, Zambian children are still victims of it in homes, public places and sometimes in schools.

To the contrary, in Sweden the story is different.

Recently, this author visited Sweden on the Swedish Institute (SI) sponsored media trip on the topic of Action against corporal punishment.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and at the same time the 35th anniversary of Sweden’s introduction of a law banning corporal punishment in all settings including in the home.

Sweden has one of the most children friendly laws in the world. It is a huge offence to spank a child in Sweden.

In recent memory, an Italian mayor visiting Stockholm with his family on holiday was arrested when he could not agree with his son over which restaurant the family could have lunch from.

Apparently, the incident was reported to authorities by an Iraq immigrant, who saw the man pull his son’s hair. It was not long before the man was arrested.

His arrest sparked lots of debate and anger between Sweden and Italy. The criticism was about Sweden’s child lenient laws, which seemed to give power to children.

As a parent, the Italian mayor felt obligated to discipline his wayward son in public, but his action attracted law enforcement officers. Allegations of physical discipline are investigated by a team of police, psychologists and prosecutors, and fines can be stiff, reaching the equivalent of US$1,000, which is about K6, 400 in Zambian currency.

The belief in Sweden is that children can be disciplined without spanking.

Parents are encouraged to rather reason with a child or distract them from doing wrong.

How possible is that? Well, Swedish laws ensure that children are well protected and their rights are defended.

In 1979, Sweden became the first country in the world to ban corporal punishment, when a provision added to its Parenthood and Guardian Code, which reads “Children are entitled to care, security and a good upbringing. Children are to be treated with respect for their person and individuality and may not be subjected to corporal punishment or any other humiliating treatment.”

The Swedish law prohibits parents from using violence or emotionally abusive treatment when bringing up a child. But it does not prevent parents from restraining their children to prevent harm to themselves or others.

The idea of reasoning with a child or distracting them from doing something wrong is highly recommended in Swedish society. That is the Swedish way of raising children.

A lot of people share the opinion that violence against children is unjust, damaging and a poor method to use when bring up children.

Even though people subscribe to this belief, it is important to continue to provide information and carrying out opinion building activities around the thorny issues.

As Swedish minister for Children and Elderly people Janusz Korczak recently said; “When violence is used against children, their confidence in the adult world is damaged. And there is good reason to believe that if this violence is exercised by the child’s own parents, or by someone else close to them, the damage is greater.”

The argument in Sweden is that the ban on spanking is precisely prevention.

As a Polish doctor, writer and educationist Janusz Korczak once said “There are many terrible things in the world, but the worst is when a child is afraid of his father, mother or teacher”.

The issue of child bearing remains hot and controversial in most of the world, including Zambia, which is a Christian nation, where the rod is highly recommended in homes to realign children for a disciplined life so to say.

Without, doubt children in Zambia and other parts of the world continue to be spanked, slapped, hit, smacked, shaken, kicked, caned and battered in the name of discipline by those who are responsible for them.

Currently, there is a disturbing video of a heartless Ugandan maid which has gone viral in Zambia. A maid in the video is battering a defenseless toddler. The poor child is kicked and trampled upon several times by the heartless maid, like in a wrestling match. Now, that is the ugly scene of child abuse, which is why child protection is vital.

Now, despite its scores on equality issues and so forth, Sweden is not a perfect society, which is why stiff laws were introduced.

“We still have isolated cases of children and women being victims of violence,” Lotta Molander, project manager at all women’s house Allakvinnorshus in Stockholm.

Further, in Sweden when a child is exposed to violence or sexual abuse, many different professional organisation groups and public authorities are brought in. For example, Barnahus “houses of the child” in Stockholm where this author visited, exists so that the child does not have to be passed around from place to place.

There the environment is specifically designed to make a child feel welcome. The décor is carefully chosen, with colors and furniture that create harmony. Not cold and stiff like many official premises. In these centres, police investigators, prosecutors and the social services work closely together. This approach means many misunderstandings between authorities can be avoided, since all are present and listening to the child at one time.

In Sweden, parents are entitled to some 480 days of parental leave when a child is born or adopted. This leave can be taken by the month, week, and day or even by the hour.

The longer maternal and paternal leave is meant to promote strong family ties. Each set of parents have 480 of paid parental leave days, which should be claimed before the child turns eight.

Fathers are encouraged to get involved in child bearing. Most parental leave is taken by mothers, but fathers are spending an increasing amount of time at home with their children.

According to statistics Swedish men now claim about 24 per cent of all parental leave taken.

Ideally, gender equality reaches and guides all levels of the Swedish educational system.

Its principles are therefore increasingly being incorporated into education in Swedish pre-schools.

The aim is to give children the same opportunities in life, regardless of their gender, by using teaching methods that allow each child to grow into a unique individual. The issue of gender equality is addressed continuously throughout elementary school to prepare students for further education.

Does Sweden expect the whole world to go along with it?

“I think corporal punishment is not a solution to instill discipline in children,” said Elisabeth Dahlin, secretary general of the Save the Children Sweden. Her organisation seeks to influence public opinion and supports children at risks in Sweden and the world.

Ms Dahlin, who once worked in Zambia, is pretty much aware of the country’s child protection issues.

When it comes to discipline, the question is how far parents should or guardians discipline their children? By nature, children like to test boundaries. Left to their own devices, they would end-up being spoilt brats. This is the argument by many people.

Sweden’s soft spot for children has not come without criticism from various sectors. Without doubt, with its generous maternity and paternity leave, affordable childcare and child-centric society, Sweden has been admired by parents’ world over.

But Swedish author and psychiatrist David Eberhard has a contrary opinion. He suggests that being so focused on children may in fact do kids – and Swedish society – more harm than good.

In his book How The Children Took Power, he claims that since Sweden became the first country in the world to ban smacking in 1979, a measure now adopted by several countries, parents have also become less willing to discipline their children verbally. Eberhard argues that this has led kids to become the key decision-makers in families, and those parents and kids suffer as a result.

Since Sweden outlawed spanking in some 35 years ago, 37 more countries have passed bans on corporal punishment at home, and even more have banned it in schools.

Zambia is yet to follow suit.