CHILD PROTECTION POLICY

Introduction
The child is the core of educational endeavours and all government and non-government sectors
shall make sure that children are protected. This self-paced learning material will provide future
teachers a glimpse and understanding on the rights of a child as provided in literatures. This hand
outs is a compilation or articles from various sources/authors intended for sharing to the class.

Objectives:
The following objectives will guide your reading and learning:
a. Explain the purpose of child protection policy.
b. Identify the rights of a child needed in addressing their protection.
c. Explain the importance of 3 P’s in the protection of children.
d. Describe the role of teachers in child protection.
e. Discuss the child protection policy in school (DepEd)

Content

I. Difinition
The Wikipedia defines Child protection as the protection of children from violence, exploitation,
abuse and neglect. Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides for the
protection of children in and out of the home. Child protection systems are a set of usually
government-run services designed to protect children and young people who are underage and to
encourage family stability. UNICEF defines[1] a ‘child protection system’ as:
the set of laws, policies, regulations and services needed across all social sectors – especially social
welfare, education, health, security and justice – to support prevention and response to protection-
related risks. These systems are part of social protection, and extend beyond it. At the level of
prevention, their aim includes supporting and strengthening families to reduce social exclusion, and to
lower the risk of separation, violence and exploitation. Responsibilities are often spread across
government agencies, with services delivered by local authorities, non-State providers, and community
groups, making coordination between sectors and levels, including routine referral systems etc.., a
necessary component of effective child protection systems.

II. Rights of a Child for Protection

United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
The right of the child to freedom from all forms of violence
Article 19 of the CRC states the following:
“1. States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational
measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect
or negligent treatment, maltreatment or Exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of
parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.
“2. Such protective measures should, as appropriate, include effective procedures for the
establishment of social programmes to provide necessary support for the child and for those who
have the care of the child, as well as for other forms of prevention and for identification, reporting,
referral, investigation, treatment and follow-up of instances of child maltreatment described
heretofore, and, as appropriate, for judicial involvement.”
The Committee on the Rights of the child (hereinafter: the Committee) issues the present general
comment on article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the child (hereinafter: the Convention),
since the extent and intensity of violence exerted on children is alarming. Measures to end violence
must be massively strengthened and expanded in order to effectively put an end to these practices
which jeopardize children’s development and societies’ potential non-violent solutions for conflict
resolution.
Overview. The general comment is based on the following fundamental assumptions and
observations:
(a) “No violence against children is justifiable; all violence against children is preventable”;[1]
(b) A child rights-based approach to child caregiving and protection requires a paradigm shift
towards respecting and promoting the human dignity and the physical and psychological integrity
of children as rights-bearing individuals rather than perceiving them primarily as “Victims”;
(c) The concept of dignity requires that every child is recognized, respected and protected as a
rights holder and as a unique and valuable human being with an individual personality, distinct
needs, interests and privacy;
(d) The principle of the rule of law should apply fully to children as it does to adults;
(e) children’s rights to be heard and to have their views given due weight must be respected
systematically in all decision-making processes, and their empowerment and participation should
be central to child caregiving and protection strategies and programmes;
(f) The right of children to have their best interests be a primary consideration in all matters
involving or affecting them must be respected, especially when they are Victims of violence, as well
as in all measures of prevention;
(g) Primary prevention, through public health, education, social services and other approaches,
of all forms of violence is of paramount importance;
(h) The Committee recognizes the primary position of families, including extended families, in
child caregiving and protection and in the prevention of violence. Nevertheless, the Committee also
recognizes that the majority of violence takes place in the context of families and that intervention
and support are therefore required when children become the Victims of hardship and distress
imposed on, or generated in, families;
(i) The Committee is also aware of widespread and intense violence applied against children in
State institutions and by State actors including in schools, care centres, residential homes, police
custody and justice institutions which may amount to Torture and killing of children, as well as
violence against children frequently used by armed groups and State military forces.

Forms of violence. The following non-exhaustive lists outlining forms of violence apply to all
children in all settings and in transit between settings. Children can experience violence at the
hands of adults, and violence may also occur among children. Furthermore, some children harm
themselves. The Committee recognizes that forms of violence often co-occur and that they can span
the categories used here for convenience. Both girls and boys are at risk of all forms of violence, but
violence often has a gender component. For example, girls may experience more sexual violence at
home than boys whereas boys may be more likely to encounter – and experience violence within –
the criminal justice system. (See also para. 72 (b) on the gender dimensions of violence).
Neglect or negligent treatment. Neglect means the failure to meet children’s physical and
psychological needs, protect them from danger, or obtain medical, birth registration or other
services when those responsible for children’s care have the means, knowledge and access to
services to do so. It includes:
(a) Physical neglect: failure to protect a child from harm,[6] including through lack of
supervision, or failure to provide the child with basic necessities including adequate food, shelter,
clothing and basic medical care;
(b) Psychological or emotional neglect: including lack of any emotional support and love,
chronic inattention to the child, caregivers being “psychologically unavailable” by overlooking
young children’s cues and signals, and exposure to intimate partner violence, drug or alcohol abuse;
(c) neglect of children’s physical or mental health: withholding essential medical care;
(d) Educational neglect: failure to comply with laws requiring caregivers to secure their
children’s education through attendance at school or otherwise; and
(e) Abandonment: a practice which is of great concern and which can disproportionately affect,
inter alia, children out of wedlock and children with disabilities in some societies.[7]

Mental violence. “Mental violence”, as referred to in the Convention, is often described as

psychological maltreatment, mental abuse, verbal abuse and emotional abuse or neglect and this
can include:
(a) All forms of persistent harmful interactions with the child, for example, conveying to
children that they are worthless, unloved, unwanted, endangered or only of value in meeting
another’s needs;
(b) Scaring, terrorizing and threatening; exploiting and corrupting; spurning and rejecting;
isolating, ignoring and favouritism;
(c) Denying emotional responsiveness; neglecting mental health, medical and educational
needs;
(d) Insults, name-calling, humiliation, belittling, ridiculing and hurting a child’s feelings;
(e) Exposure to domestic violence;
(f) Placement in solitary confinement, isolation or humiliating or degrading conditions of
detention; and
(g) Psychological bullying and hazing by adults or other children, including via information and
communication technologies (ICTs) such as mobile phones and the Internet (known as
“cyberbullying”).
Physical violence. This includes fatal and non-fatal physical violence. The Committee is of the
opinion that physical violence includes:
(a) All corporal punishment and all other forms of Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or punishment; and
(b) Physical bullying and hazing by adults and by other children.
Children with disabilities may be subject to particular forms of physical violence such as:
(a) Forced sterilization, particularly girls;
(b) Violence in the guise of treatment (for example electroconvulsive treatment (ECT) and
electric shocks used as “aversion treatment” to control children’s behaviour); and
(c) Deliberate infliction of disabilities on children for the purpose of exploiting them for begging
in the streets or elsewhere.

Corporal punishment. In general comment No. 8 (para. 11), the Committee defined “corporal” or
“physical” punishment as any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause
some degree of pain or discomfort, however light. Most involves hitting (“smacking”, “slapping”,
“spanking”) children, with the hand or with an implement � a whip, stick, belt, shoe, wooden
spoon, etc. But it can also involve, for example, kicking, shaking or throwing children, scratching,
pinching, biting, pulling hair or boxing ears, caning, forcing children to stay in uncomfortable
positions, burning, scalding, or forced ingestion. In the view of the Committee, corporal punishment
is invariably degrading. Other specific forms of corporal punishment are listed in the report of the
independent expert for the United Nations study on violence against children (A/61/299, paras. 56,
60 and 62).
Sexual abuse and Exploitation. Sexual abuse and Exploitation includes:
(a) The inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful or psychologically harmful
sexual activity;
(b) The use of children in commercial Sexual Exploitation; and
(c) The use of children in audio or visual images of child sexual abuse;
(d) child prostitution, sexual slavery, Sexual Exploitation in travel and tourism, trafficking
(within and between countries) and sale of children for sexual purposes and forced marriage. Many
children experience sexual victimization which is not accompanied by physical force or restraint
but which is nonetheless psychologically intrusive, exploitive and traumatic.
Torture and inhuman or Degrading Treatment or punishment. This includes violence in all its
forms against children in order to extract a confession, to extrajudicially punish children for
unlawful or unwanted behaviours, or to force children to engage in activities against their will,
typically applied by police and law-enforcement officers, staff of residential and other institutions
and persons who have power over children, including non-State armed actors. Victims are often
children who are marginalized, disadvantaged and discriminated against and who lack the
protection of adults responsible for defending their rights and best interests. This includes children
in conflict with the law, children in street situations, minorities and indigenous children, and
unaccompanied children. The brutality of such acts often results in life-long physical and
psychological harm and social stress.
Violence among children. This includes physical, psychological and sexual violence, often by
bullying, exerted by children against other children, frequently by groups of children, which not
only harms a child’s physical and psychological integrity and well-being in the immediate term, but
often has severe impact on his or her development, education and social integration in the medium
and long term. Also, violence by youth gangs takes a severe toll on children, whether as Victims or
as participants. Although children are the actors, the role of adults responsible for these children is
crucial in all attempts to appropriately react and prevent such violence, ensuring that measures do
not exacerbate violence by taking a punitive approach and using violence against violence.
Self-harm. This includes eating disorders, substance use and abuse, self-inflicted injuries, suicidal
thoughts, suicide attempts and actual suicide. Suicide � among adolescents is of particular concern
to the Committee.
Harmful practices. These include, but are not limited to:
(a) corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading forms of punishment;
(b) Female genital mutilation;
(c) Amputations, binding, scarring, burning and branding;
(d) Violent and degrading initiation rites; force-feeding of girls; fattening; virginity testing
(inspecting girls’ genitalia);
(e) Forced marriage and early marriage;
(f) “Honour” crimes; “retribution” acts of violence (where disputes between different groups are
taken out on children of the parties involved); dowry-related death and violence;
(g) Accusations of “witchcraft” and related harmful practices such as “exorcism”;
(h) Uvulectomy and teeth extraction.

Violence in the mass media. Mass media, especially tabloids and the yellow press, tend to
highlight shocking occurrences and as a result create a biased and stereotyped image of children, in
particular of disadvantaged children or adolescents, who are often portrayed as violent or
delinquent just because they may behave or dress in a different way. Such stirred-up stereotypes
pave the way for State policies based on a punitive approach, which may include violence as a
reaction to assumed or factual misdemeanours of children and young persons.
Violence through information and communications technologies.[10] child protection risks in
relation to ICT comprise the following overlapping areas:
(a) sexual abuse of children to produce both visual and audio child abuse images facilitated by
the Internet and other ICT;
(b) The process of taking, making, permitting to take, distributing, showing, possessing or
advertising indecent photographs or pseudophotographs (“morphing”) and videos of children and
those making a mockery of an individual child or categories of children;
(c) children as users of ICT:
(i) As recipients of information, children may be exposed to actually or potentially harmful
advertisements, spam, sponsorship, personal information and content which is aggressive, violent,
hateful, biased, racist, pornographic, unwelcome and/or misleading;
(ii) As children in contact with others through ICT, children may be bullied, harassed or stalked
(child “luring”) and/or coerced, tricked or persuaded into meeting strangers off-line, being
“groomed” for involvement in sexual activities and/or providing personal information;
(iii) As actors, children may become involved in bullying or harassing others, playing games that
negatively influence their psychological development, creating and uploading inappropriate sexual
material, providing misleading information or advice, and/or illegal downloading, hacking,
gambling, financial scams and/or terrorism.

III. The Three P's of children's rights: Provision, Protection and Participation
We may read the Convention as a suggested "contract" between the child and adult generations, as
a desired model where children have access to resources, they are protected and they are allowed
to participate. The contract is built upon the three hard P's; provision, protection and
participation.
These three P's are, actually, universal elements of the organisation of childhood in any society and
at any time. Only the social forms of our giving effect to these three P's may vary according to time
and place. Children are always nourished, educated and protected to some degree, and they have
participated according to the allowances of a particular generational model. The Convention could
be seen as an attempt to make these aspects of the generational model explicit.
The reasons are, for sure, several. For instance, it is according to the civilized notion of childhood no
longer acceptable to let children suffer or to misuse them. Historically, the newest elements might
be concerned with perceiving the child as an individual holder of rights, and the spectrum of rights
is widened to take in participation. In many other respects the Convention follows the already
culturally established notion of the proper generation relations.
We may therefore conclude that the Convention tries partly to renew the notion of the status of the
child, and partly to press for the better satisfaction of the well-known needs of the child. The parties
who are signnatories to the Convention assume the role of implementers. Any contradictions will
then become apparent, too, if they are allowed to feature on the agenda. The basic elements of the
"contract" between children and adults, namely provision, protection and participation, should be
encountered not only in the state policy, but in all communication and interaction between adults
and children.
In a way, the way we programme and implement the three hard P's will touch upon sharing of
material and mental resources, sharing knowledge and experiences, and even affection and power.
1. Provision: distribution of resources
Provision refers to sharing and distribution; it includes the right to possess, receive or have access
to certain resources and services. The Convention stresses that state parties shall undertake
measures for children "to the maximum extent of their available resources". It suggests that
children should get a lot and the best. So, elaborating the idea of provision will call for a lot of work
if it is to be implemented.
Provision is a basic general concept, and within it "resource" is a key word. It is involved in a wide
variety of things like money, mental and physical space, power, opportunities, knowledge, love,
friendship, self-esteem, and nature ...
The second set of key words involves things like possessing, receiving and having access to
resources. The process of redistributing some resources, like money and power, is going on in many
countries.

There are critical issues like:

Which kinds of resources are distributed by policy making, and
What are the explicit and implicit consequences of certain decisions about resources? Moreover,
which kinds of resources are produced and shared in everyday communication? Who has
resources? Do children have any resources that can be distributed?
What do we know about the distribution of the resources between the child and adult generations?
Not very much. This leads us to the complicated field of the nature of knowledge. The national
reports of the research project Childhood as a Social Phenomenon (Qvortrup 1990) have indicated
again and again that the data on children and childhood are adults - and institution-oriented. Family
statistics and "child information" is actually saying more about adulthood than childhood. We need
a knowledge policy that also takes the child as a unit of observation. Knowledge is also a resource
field where children should get more social space, for instance, as informants.

There is another challenge in this generational contract: our policies should be firmly based on the
sustainable choices so that "something" is left to the not-yet-born generations.

2. Protection: parenting and "regression"

Protection stands for the right to be shielded from certain acts and practices (social and individual
misuses). It is close to parenting. In our culture the responsibility for parenting is restricted to two
adults, the mother and the father. Parenting is perceived as a private issue. However, the
components of parenting are complex and specialized. Children are actually parented by several
adults “in private parental parenting and in professional parenting. The problem is: what is the
interplay between these different aspects of parenting? A suggestion focusing on this very interplay
springs from the problems of marginalized families. A study of child protection (Fisher et al, 1986)
proposes that the concept of parents should be extended. "All parenting is shared between the
family and the wider kinship and friendship network, and between this system and state provision".

Every major reform on children has been implemented through new special groups of experts, and
much of childhood is encapsulated in the institutions influenced by professional thinking. Socially
shared parenting would involve a lot of rethinking as to children as a social group, as well as
children at risk. The redistribution of the economic "burden" due to the maintenance of children is
a form of socially shared parenting. Another 'social parenting' concern is how children are parented
in child institutions like schools day care centres and children's homes. Are we, as child experts,
able to develop means to protect children and adults from negative and growth-denying
experiences? Are we able to create environments that actually go beyond the impressive planning
illustrated by 'figures, boxes and arrows'?
Children make their acquaintance with the world in these institutions and schools. These are the
places where they meet and reflect on the world in their minds, and grasp it in their own way. For
these explorations, plenty of room and free space of all kinds are needed. Institutions for children
are also socialized forms of mother's breast and father's lap. These are supposed to be feeding and
encouraging, not suffocating and imprisoning.

3. Participation: progression and "occupying" the world

Participation stands for the right to do things, express oneself and have an effective voice as an
individual child and as a larger group. The rights to freedom are considered so vital to adults. What
happens when minors have access to them too? Children's rights to protection and welfare do not
touch upon the power relationship between adults and children, but the rights to freedom do
(Franklin 1986).
Will these rights and freedoms become everyday practice in schools and communities? If miners
are given new chances of participation and co-determination, they too will become social subjects
(rather than objects) of the politics of childhood alongside adults. A genuine transformation
between the generations can take place only if all the parties involved are allotted the status of
subject.
When children themselves have a chance to study life, they can participate in analyzing the major
issues affecting them. As they examine the rights of the child, they may explore what these mean in
practice, and they can also participate in advocating and implementing them. This calls for arenas in
which there is a shift from adult domination to social partnership. Children are members of their
families, schools or day care and other institutions, but also of the specific generation into which
they happen to be born.
We need to know and understand the child generation which we are dealing with, and not to
imagine that our adult-oriented knowledge of childhood reflects adequately their reality. We need
to be available to them with our experiences and skills; social arenas and practices are needed in
which the miners may in turn express their experiences. These partnerships with children might
help us as adults better to understand the fantasies hidden in words and experience and to avoid
empty rhetoric.

Helping marginalized children in practice

The author highlighted this thinking by an example. What would shared parenting and participation
of children mean, particularly with regard to children at risk or in special dangers?

Kuttula is a Finnish non-governmental organization dedicated to child care dealing especially with
children in difficult situations who have been deserted and abandoned not only by their families
but also by diverse helping services. They have complex family backgrounds as well as complex
"careers" in the helping services. Some of these children are mentally ill, some of them come from
prison. Kuttula serves these children by providing them with "homely atmosphere, with affection
and love, which they were deprived of in their previous lives" “as they like to state themselves.

Qualities of the community

Some of the essential features of the community's activity are the following:
1. No one is rejected. Nobody will be sent from the community with an accompanying note which
reads "Beyond help by means at our disposal". The children usually spend a long period living at
Kuttula which thus becomes a stable part of a child's family.
2. "The extended joint parenthood" means that the relations between adults and children in this
community, together with previous important human relations (whenever possible, at least on the
mental level) make up the network of primary relationships.
3. The child is helped to realize his position as a link in the chain of generations. The people
previously important to the child are associated with the activities whenever possible. The children
are relieved of any responsibility for their parents and supported (for instance, by permitting their
negative feelings) in taking responsibility for themselves, and also in integrating their previous,
however chaotic, experiences in their life history (see Hansen 1991).
4. The children's problems are investigated and treated in the order they appear in everyday life. In
community meetings topics like death, violence, or abuse are discussed - and not avoided to protect
the child from discussing such things which are so characteristic of their previous lives.
Simultaneously, positive resources are made available and the children prepared for these.
5. The children participate in the maintenance of the community, which is not served to them
"ready-made" by the adults. Control of the community is firmly in the hands of the adults, but the
children clearly feel that they are participants necessary in the management of the organisation. At
present the community is visiting Nepal. The children, having experienced themselves as "social
problems" and troublemakers, are now doing their share in development aid. They also are taking
responsibility for their own school attendance, which in many cases had suffered over long
intervals.

IV. Role of Teachers in Child Protection

Children can be subjected to neglect, abuse, violence and exploitation anywhere. There is some
abuse that may happen inside the school premises, while a lot of it is what children suffer at home
and in non-school environments. A child in your class may be a victim of
violence/abuse/exploitation that happens outside the school. You cannot ignore it. Rather you must
help the child. This too is possible only if you are able to identify that there is a problem and you
spend time to understand it and explore possible solutions.

Always remember that your duty to protect children does not come to an end once you are out of
the school premises. The life of a child who is out of the school system can be changed with your
positive intervention. You just have to prepare yourself for it and know more about their problems
as well as what you can do to help.

Once you are mentally prepared and equipped to tackle the problem you will be able to do many
things you have never dreamt you are capable of doing.

A child-friendly teacher:

 Understand children’s rights as human rights and create such awareness in the community
as well.
 Make children feel it is worthwhile attending your class.
 Be open to learning.
 Be a Friend, Philosopher and Guide to the child.
 Make the classes interesting and informative. Avoid one-way communication and give
opportunities to children to come up with their doubts and queries.
 Learn to recognise and identify abuse, neglect, learning disorders and other not so visible
disabilities.
 Create a relationship where children can express their views, concerns, anguish, fear etc.
Try to engage with children in informal discussions.
 Be a good listener. Share and discuss various issues and problems which children are facing
either in school or at home.
 Encourage children’s participation in matters that affect their lives.
 Build children’s capacities to participate effectively.
 Organise meetings of children with school authorities.
 Discuss child rights issues with the parents in the PTA meetings.
 Say NO to corporal punishment. Use positive reinforcement techniques like dialogue and
counselling to discipline children.
 Say NO to discrimination. Take active steps to reach out to children from minority and other
discriminated groups.
 Stop negative stereotyping and discrimination against working children, street children,
child victims of sexual abuse, trafficking, domestic violence or drug abuse and children in
conflict with law, to name a few categories of those who need protection.
 Stop use of child labour in your home and workplace.
  Be democratic but not unstructured.
 Ensure children are protected within the school as well as in the community, even if it
requires calling the police and taking/facilitating legal action.
 Encourage them to put forward their views before the adults and the community.
 Involve children in organising events. Give them responsibilities and at the same time give
them the required guidance.
 Take children to nearby places for picnics and pleasure trips.
 Engage children in discussions/debates/quiz and other recreational activities.
 Encourage education and participation of girls through creative measures within the
classroom.
 Follow-up on girls who drop out or attend irregularly to ensure it does not continue.
 All teachers can help in creating and strengthening a protective environment around
children.
 Your observations are important, as they alone will help you to assess the growth and
progress of a child in your class. If you see a problem, your next step should be to explore
what could be the possible reason.
 Next question to yourself should be whether the child is under any pressures from family,
relatives or friends.
 Spend some time with the child privately, without being imposing, humiliating and creating
an embarrassing situation for the child.
 Help the child express her/his problem either through drawing and painting or by writing a
story or simply talking to you or the school counsellor/social worker or to a friend in the
class.

Preserving the rights of an HIV infected child

 Impart sex education to children based on their age and level of maturity.
 Inform the children about HIV/AIDS. How it spreads and affects an individual, and how can
we prevent it from spreading further?
 Create and enabling environment in the class-room to ensure that infected and affected kids
are not stigmatised. Creating and strengthening a protective environment for children
requires many levels of engagement, which in turn demand dialogue, partnerships, and
coordination based on a shared analysis. Many of its components correspond to traditional
development activities and approaches, such as improving basic services, monitoring
results, and recognising individuals as actors in their own development.
 Teachers must be aware of the government’s schemes for children and what they have to
offer. Identify children and families that require assistance and could be helped through any
of the existing Government schemes.

Identifying Child Sexual Abuse

Identifying Child Sexual Abuse

Signs of sexual abuse in children and adolescents

  6-11 Years 12-17 Years

GIRL Engages in explicit sexual behaviours with other Sexually exploitative interactions with younger children
S children.

Sexually promiscuous behaviour or total avoidance of sexual

  Verbally describes experiences of sexual abuse.
involvement

Excessive concern or preoccupation with private

  Eating disturbances
parts.

  Sexually relating to adults. Efforts to distance from feelings of guilt, shame and humiliation

Sudden fear or mistrust of males, females or specific

  Running away from home
places.

Age inappropriate knowledge of adult sexual

  Sleep disturbances: Nightmares and night terrors
behaviour.

Engages in explicit sexual behaviours with other Sexually exploitative or aggressive interactions with younger
BOYS
children children

Sudden fear or mistrust of males, females or specific

  Regressive behaviour
places

  Sleep disturbances: Night mares and night terrors Acting out and risk taking behaviour

  Sudden aggressive behaviour or acting out Efforts to distance from feelings of guilt, shame and humiliation

  Loss of interest in previous interests Regressive behaviour

Precautions: The above mentioned signs or symptoms are to be considered only as rough
guidelines to indicate that a child is in trouble and that the cause may be sexual abuse. It is very
important, however, not to jump on any individual symptom or behaviour and conclude that abuse
has taken place. Rather you must look for groups of symptoms and use your intuition.
Children are often taught to obey adults. In the process they forget to say “no” to the adults, even if
they do not like the behaviour or attitude of the adults.
Teach children to say “no” in such situations.

Ten messages about children with disabilities

1. Prevent negative stereotypical attitudes about children with disabilities by avoiding

negative words, such as “disabled,” “crippled,” “handicapped,” instead of “a child with a
physical or movement disability”; “wheelchair bound” for “a child who uses wheelchair”,
“deaf and dumb” instead of “a child with hearing and speech disability”, or “retarded” for “a
child with mental disability.”
2. Depict children with disabilities with equal status as those without disabilities. For example,
a student with a disability can tutor a younger child without a disability. Children with
disabilities should interact with non-disabled children in as many ways as possible.
 3. Allow children with disabilities to speak for themselves and express their thoughts and
feelings. Involve children with and without disabilities in the same projects and encourage
their mutual participation.
4. Observe children and identify disabilities. Early detection of disabilities has become part of
early-childhood education. The earlier a disability is detected in a child, the more effective
the intervention and the less severe the disability.
5. Refer the child whose disability is identified, for developmental screening and early
intervention.
6. Adapt the lessons, learning materials and classroom to the needs of children with
disabilities. Use means such as large print, seating the child in the front of the class, and
making the classroom accessible for the child with a movement disability. Integrate positive
ideas about disabilities into classwork, children’s play and other activities.
7. Sensitise parents, families, and caregivers about the special needs of children with
disabilities. Speak to parents in meetings as well as on a one-to-one basis.
8. Teach frustrated parents simple ways to deal with and manage their child’s needs and help
them to have patience to prevent abuse of the disabled child.
9. Guide siblings and other family members in lessening the pain and frustration of parents of
children with disabilities, by being helpful.
10. Actively involve parents of young children with disabilities as full team members in
planning school and after school activities.

Source: UNICEF, Teacher’s Talking about Learning (http://www.unicef.org/teachers)

Constructive Disciplinary Practices

 Respect the child’s dignity.

 Develop pro-social behavior, self-discipline, and character.
 Maximise the child’s active participation.
 Respect the child’s developmental needs and quality of life.
 Respect the child’s motivational characteristics and life views.
 Assure fairness and transformative justice.
 Promote solidarity.

Source: Eliminating Corporal Punishment: The Way Forward to Constructive Child Discipline - A

UNESCO Publication.

Changing the school environment - biggest challenge

Is your school child-friendly? This is how it can be one:

 ‘Spare the rod and save childhood’ should be the slogan and message for children, their
parents and community at large.
 A school must have a trained counsellor to help children showing signs of psychological and
emotional problems and to provide necessary counseling to both the children and their
parents/guardians.
 A school must have a social worker to generate positive peer response, family response and
community response.
  Regular and periodic PTAs should become an essential feature. PTAs should provide a
platform for dialogue between teachers and parents on the child’s overall development and
not just progress in class.
 Training and sensitization activities with teachers on child rights must become a regular
feature just as teachers are sent for academic trainings by various schools on a regular
basis.
 Fora for children’s participation in matters affecting them inside the school should be
created.
 Sex Education should be made an essential component of life skill education imparted in
schools.
 Basic facilities like toilets and drinking water for children must be made available within the
school premises. Toilets for boys and girls should be separate.
 For schools that function from a tent or a small room, adequate breaks for toilet and
drinking water must form a routine.
 Disabled-friendly infrastructure and teaching-learning materials reflect on a school’s
sensitivity towards the disabled children. Ensure that you have it all or at least what your
resources can best permit. Local resources can be mobilized to fulfill this need.
 There should be no vendors in and around the school premises.
 Schools that strictly discourage employment of children for domestic work by its teachers
actually establish a best practice to be followed by all in the community.
 Evolving peer groups to check drug abuse or any other form of abuse taking place within
the school premise is a good practice that schools must adopt.
 Guidelines are set up and followed for disciplinary enquiries and action against teachers or
other school karamcharis reportedly involved in child sexual abuse within the school
premises or outside.
 Guidelines, rules and norms are laid out to deal with discrimination on grounds of gender,
disability, caste, religion or HIV/AIDS reported within the school premises.
 Schools should set up a child protection monitoring unit or cell involving children, their
parents, and panchayats / municipal councils. The role of this unit could be to maintain
records of children needing care and protection and to report cases of child abuse to the
police or other concerned authorities.

Theme based recreational activities to involve children

 Discussions/debates/quiz
 Story telling
 Painting, local art (specific to the region)
 Skits/plays/theatre arts
 Pottery and other crafts
 Puppet making
 Face painting
 Origami
 Photography
 Picnic and Excursions
 Sports (indoor and outdoor)
 Exhibitions

Source: Portal Content Team

References:
United Nations Economic and Social Council (2008), UNICEF Child Protection Strategy,
E/ICEF/2008/5/Rev.1, par. 12-13.
Sandberg, Kirsten. (2018). Children’s Right to Protection Under the CRC. Retrieved from
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-94800-3_2

Vikaspedia. Teacher’s Role in Child Protection. Retrieved from https://vikaspedia.in/education/child-

rights/child-protection-1/what-teachers-can-do-to-protect-the-children

Bardy, Marjatta. (2000). The 3 Ps of Children’s Rights; Protection, Provision and Participation. Retrieved
from https://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0500-threepees.html