Violence against children

The effects of violence and bad behavior of parents and in whole from all elder on the children will convey from one generation to another. Those people who are disturbed during their childhood by the others, they will for sure convey such behavior with their children. The violence against children are classified into two categories:

A) Psychological Violence like lack of affection, threats, making them ashamed, sneer, no attention towards their psychological and physical needs of the child, curse, humility and many more examples.

B) Physical Violence like beating, throwing them up, burning them, throwing things at them and many more examples.

All the above points can have negative effects on the thinking, mental and body growth of a child.

Also the recent investigation conducted by the medical specialists of the England shows that those children who are faced with forced and violence of their elders are mostly faced with cancer diseases and other health problems.

For further information about the negative effects of the verbal violence against the children I (Masoud Ansar) have conducted an interview with Ms. Afifa Marouf one of the activist of the human rights and also an employee of the independent human rights commission of Afghanistan which is going to be present to you dear audience.

At the beginning if you can introduce yourself?

I am Afifa Marouf one of the employees of the independent human rights commission of Afghanistan from the children’s right support section.

Question: To which kinds of discussions we can say verbal violence?

Answer: The verbal violence are referred to those words which lead to psychological harms to the child and the child also doesn’t like that someone communicate with him/her in that tune; like abuse, naming the child in a wrong way, finding defects in the child, calling the child with an awful tone or tune which brings anger in the child and shouting at the children etc. and using improper words are part of the verbal violence against the children.

Question: As in some of the families they are not behaving properly with their children and they are talking with their children in horrid way; is this also counted as a violence against children or not?

Answer: Similarly, the horrid behavior, absurd speeches or words and violence created words like calling the child with different names i.e. if your child name is Lal Muhammad and you call him Lalo is considered as violence against them and in future it could rise like a knot in them.

Question: As a whole what could be the negative effects of these kinds of behaviors in future?

Answer: At the beginning as the child is not having the ability to defend him/her, the person who is doing this kind of behavior with him/her make him/her disappointed and the doer is no more trustworthy to the child; if the doer is his/her father, brother, uncle and or anybody the child will hate him and at the second step the child will adopt silence and he/she will think that he/she is only worth of hearing such words and it will lead to the lack of growth in his/her personality and it will for sure effect the future personality of the child; it also diminish the self-confidence of the child and finally it gives a mentality that the child will think his/her personality very low and he/she is unable of doing any work.

Question: Whenever a child is losing his/her self-confidence and adopt seclusion; Do we still have any hope from him/her that in the future this child will serve for the society and the people of the society?

Answer: No, it is to say that improper behavior with the kids in their childhood change the conditions of his future life and the personality of the child in future; and whenever this child recall his childhood then it will have a negative effect on him and as a knot it will appear in his grown up life and this situation causes that this man become a burden on the society; this person cannot trust others and as well as he may not have confidence on himself and will never accept the responsibilities against the society, people and the country.

Question: Based on your views; what are the main reasons behind these kinds of the behaviors?

Answer: Lack of awareness regarding the children’s right and lack of literacy in the families are the reasons that not only at homes but also at the society they face improper behavior and treatments.

It is to mention that in our country Afghanistan no attention is given to the children and their rights; people in Afghanistan give less value to the children and always behave with them in horrid ways.

But we should look at the children in a way that they are the future makers of our country and we should respect the rights of the children; we should give spirit to the children and all the people of our country should look at the children with the eye that they are the future makers of the country and the future of the country is in their hands and they should be behaved always properly. For the development and growth of the children there is a need of investment so that in future they become capable, confident, hard-worker, honest and brave young and all of us should respect their personalities.

Question: Based on your views; those families which are not behaving properly with their children, are also faced with violence in the past?

Answer: Yes, because of the absurd customs and traditions or negative customs which are coming from generation to generation; if we look at the past of those who are behaving improperly or with violence with the children then we find that these people also faced violence in their childhood and now as they are in a position they are doing violence against the children

And if we would like to not have impolite people in the society then we should treat softly with our children, students and those children who are under our hands so that their personalities grow in a proper way.

Question: Based on your views; violence against children and using of improper words for the children has become a culture in our country, isn’t it?

Answer: Yes, it is an absurd custom and tradition and according the article 54 of the constitution of Afghanistan and all of us should struggle regarding elimination of such customs and traditions.

With all the children of Afghanistan the same treatment should take place as the other children of the world who are deserving their rights and for this purpose both the family and the government has the responsibility.

Question: What solutions would you propose for these problems so that we have good children and our children are on safe side from these kinds of the problems?

Answer: In order to have a confident and secure society in future we should eliminate the violence in our home and societal environments and all those activities that we would like to perform should be based on logic, reasoning and thoughts; if our activities are in such a way that contaminate the environment of the home and society then it will directly or indirectly effect on our children and their spirits in a negative way and the children will adopt calmness and they won’t be able to perform their activities are required.

As a final question; what solutions are suggested by your organization to the governmental institutions so that we cope with the problems?

Answer: One of the important activities of the independent human rights commission of Afghanistan is to monitor the condition of all citizens of Afghanistan; therefore for this purpose we are always monitoring the schools, kindergartens, steerage centers of children and other places where there are children and we are sharing the results of our monitoring with the relevant ministries and institutions and in those cases where the violence is committed in the schools, kindergarten or steerage centers, we are trying to discuss the issues with the committers and try to find out solutions for these problems and finally to clear the environment from the violence.

Similarly, we have programs for public awareness through conducting sessions, media and workshops to ensure and communicate how to behave with the children and consider their rights.

This was our today’s discussion that was presented to your and thank you very much for following the program with us until end; good bye.