By Milagros Del Aguila
Physical and emotional abuse is a daily occurrence everywhere around the globe, but children are some of the greatest sufferers from it. At home they face abuses by their family members, or on the streets where they're unlikely to find someone to defend them.
To be a child growing up in Peru can be a great disadvantage if one misbehaves and/or disobeys one’s parents. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Peru says that adults commit physical and emotional abuse to children in order to correct non-desirable behaviors so that new behaviors, considered important, can be impressed upon them (UNICEF in Peru). Most parents believe that it is a way to discipline when in reality all they are doing is developing great fear inside the child’s mind and heart. There are various reasons why parents decide to use physical punishment to correct behavior in a child. Classic examples are not doing or not completing house chores, coming home late, embarrassing parents in public, formal and informal address of language (such as using informal you “Tu” instead of formal you “ Usted”), among others.
I remember how it was for me growing up in an environment where physical and emotional abuse was seen as a way to discipline children. For instance, I was mostly punished because I did not wash the dishes directly after lunch. My grand-mother would always say “your bag is getting full” which would translate into “my patience is getting to its limit and when it reaches its highest point, I will beat you to make you understand that you need to do the dishes when told”. Of course, she did not see it as an abuse, but as a simple tool to guide me on the right path of obedience. One reason why my grand-mother thought this way could be a consequence of the traditional thought that “correct behavior comes with punishment”. This means that because my grand-mother’s parents raised her with this type of belief structure, she believed it to be true. However, not only she thought it was true because it happened in her house, but also because it happened around her community. Therefore, when she became a mother and grand-mother herself, she thought it was part of motherhood to educate or correct one’s child behavior through physical abuse. In other words, she continued the cycle of abuse to the next generation.
What makes easier for adults to physically abuse children is the fact that adults are in a position of power. This means that children are deprived from defending themselves because in most cases they have not been taught or have not seen around their communities that they too deserve to be treated as human beings. Instead, what Children learn is that they must follow and obey an adult’s orders because adults are solely capable of making the right decisions for them even if this involves abuse of any form. Also, what allows abuse to continue is the entitlement that adults have over children. Thus, children are seen as property and not as human beings that must be respected and validated as such. In a Document presented by La Defensoria del Pueblo, a Human Rights institution in Peru titled "¡ADIOS AL CASTIGO! La Defensoría del Pueblo Contra el Castigo Físico y Humillante a Niños, Niñas y Adolescentes”, which was based on the visit of 36 Defensorias Municipales de Niños and Adolescentes (DEMUNAS) in Lima, Ayacucho, Junin, and Piura, found that the majority of children’s aggressors are their own parents (23 DEMUNAS, teachers (7 DEMUNAS) and family members such as step parents, grand-parents, uncles, aunts, and older siblings (6 DEMUNAS) (Defensoria del Pueblo, 1). Indeed, by looking at this document, it is clear that children are the most vulnerable because they are surrounded by adults who will purposely abuse them with the ignorant idea that it is for the child’s benefit. What also contributes to children’s abuse is if children ask for help, they have no place to go to as all their community believes in the status quo.
There are different types of abuse: physical and emotional. Physical abuses are perhaps the most noticeable whereas emotional abuse can slowly manifest itself throughout the child’s life. Physical punishment in Peru is executed in different manners, for example, hitting with sticks, wire cables, burnings on hand or other parts of the body (Defensoria del Pueblo, 11). In addition to this list, pulling hair, pinching, and slapping are other forms of physical abuse. While I was growing up in Peru, my grand-mother and my elementary school teacher could be considered as my primary physical abusers. As I write this, it is very hard for me to accept the words “physical abusers” because since I lived in such an environment, I became numb to the idea that this is what was happening to me and other children. As a consequence, although I disagree with either type of punishment, I consciously do not hold any resentment towards those two individuals and I imagine many people who grew up around me might feel the same. For us, it was a simple way our parents used to discipline us, which unsurprisingly, re-estates the abuse cycle discussed earlier. In other words, because I experienced and observed abuse,I learned to accept it as normal, which inevitably, has negative repercussions.
In addition to physical abuse, there is also emotional abuse that is a result of the latter. According to Defensoria del Pueblo, a physical aggression can affect the psychological integrity of a child, it can affect his or her self-esteem, and eventually, it impacts the way he or she interacts with others. In addition, they tend to forget that they live in that body and that it is it what constitutes them as human beings (Defensoria del Pueblo, 11). What this means is that children lose the connection they have with their own bodies. They become two separate entities, which may make it easier for them to disassociate from the pain at the beginning. Nevertheless, “to hit or disrespect the body has to do with the dignity of the human being” (Defensoria del Pueblo, 11). This said, it is an offense to emotionally or physically attack someone else’s body because it contributes to the deterioration of the integrity of an existing being.
Although, the Convention of the Rights of the Child was established in 1989 to incorporate Children as human beings too, there is a lot work to be done. The Convention, along its 54 articles and two optional protocols, state that every child has “the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life” (UNICEF). They are all very well intended; unfortunately they are, in many cases, ignored. For this reason, there are many human rights organizations that dedicate their time to make sure that Children’s rights are fully addressed. Such organizations in Peru are Ministerio de la Mujer y Desarrollo Social (MIMDES), Defensoria del Pueblo, UNICEF in Peru, among others.
For example, many non profits in Bolivia organized a campaign against Child abuse. The image on the right shows a child holding two pieces of circled paper: the yellow reads “No al maltrato” (No to maltreatment/abuse) and the orange paper, which is in a shape of an orange fruit reads “Este invierno consume ésta naranja y te protejerás de la violencia y te llenará de amor” (This winter eat this orange and it will protect you from violence and it will fill you up with love) (Jornada.net). It symbolizes the children wanting to replace abuse with a refreshing love just as it would be by consuming an orange. Thus, by allowing a child participation in the fight against a cause that matters to him or her, it re-validates him or her as a human being, part of society and the adult world.
Another aspect of physical and emotional abuse is faced by children who live on the Streets of Peru. The reasons for this are a consequence of urbanization, poverty, and violence. Many families move from the mountains or rain forest regions to the urban areas of the country in search of a better life for their families. However, as it happens often times, parents do not find a job right away or are laid off, which puts them in a poverty level, if they do not form part of it already. As a result, “children of the poor are expected from an early age to contribute to the income and welfare of the household” (Cleary, 39). Examples of the many ways boys and girls help out with the income of the household is quite visible if one takes a walk in Metropolitan Lima. It is common to find children who are shining shoes, cleaning wind shields of cars, singing on buses, selling candy, or performing gymnastics on the middle of the road while the cars wait for the traffic light to change from red to green.
As a concrete example, the image on the left portrays these two girls who are resting on a side of a corridor. The girl on the left is holding a musical instrument that appears to be a Charango or small guitar, which is probably used to sing on the buses. The girl on the right holds what seems to be bag filled with candy that she will try to sell on the streets and buses. From my experience seeing girls performing or selling things on the buses, it could be that the girl with the small guitar sang while the other girl offered candy to the bus passengers hoping someone would buy.
The other problem is that of children who actually make a living on the streets. In addition The Consortium for Street Children's State of the World's Street Children: Violence report (2007) states that “One research project found that 73% of the street children they interviewed cited family violence and child mistreatment as reasons for taking to the streets”, it continues, “most street-living boys in Peru are children who had become 'scapegoats' in their family; blamed for causing conflict and stress, and maltreated when their families were going through a crisis“ (Toybox). Thus, this takes us back to Children’s abuse at home, where a child who has been abused several times by their loved ones might paradoxically; opt for the streets as the safest place to be or a place to relieve stress from his or her parents. Many of these children end up consuming narcotics or other hallucinogenic substances such as “terocal” (shoe glue) to forget the reality they live in. Children, who reside on the streets, feel forced to steal in order to survive. Thus, they form sort of gangs in groups of around 6 or more. In Lima, they are known as or compared to “pirañitas” because when they have a target, they usually appear as a big group and strip down the person they are stealing from, just as if a fish were to be eaten by piranhas. Also, in the Documentary the Hummingbird was seen the denigration of the children of Brazil. They, just as the Peruvian street children, consumed glue to numb their sadness and need for love, respect, and consideration as human beings.
In conclusion, physical and emotional abuse in children happens in a home or on the streets. It is imperative that issues pertaining to the rights of Children are addressed because it is no use to have the Convention on the Rights of a Child if it is not put into practice. There are many of us who grew up facing physical and emotional abuse from our parents and although I am okay, I do not believe corporal, verbal or psychological punishments are the answers to disciplining a child. It is my hope that in the near future, there will be a more centralized focus on children’s rights as they will be the next holders of the world we now live in.
Work Cited
Cleary, Edward L. "Life and Death on the Streets: From Street Children to Children at Risk." Mobilizing for Human Rights in Latin America. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian, 2007. 39. Print.
"Convention on the Rights of the Child." UNICEF. 26 Aug. 2008. Web. 27 July 2010.
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"Dan Chocolates Como Vacuna Simbólica Contra Maltrato Infantil." Jornada | Portada. Ed. Aurios S. R. L. 9 June 2009. Web. 27 July 2010. .
Defensoria Del Pueblo. Adios Al Castigo! La Defensoría Del Pueblo Contra El Castigo Físico Y Humillante a Niños, Niñas Y Adolescentes. 1st ed. Lima, 2009. Web. 27 July 2010. .
Defensoria Del Pueblo. En El Marco De La Reforma Del Código De Los Niños Y Adolescentes DEFENSORÍA DEL PUEBLO RECOMIENDA IMPLEMENTACIÓN DE MARCO LEGAL QUE PROTEJA A LOS NIÑOS FRENTE AL CASTIGO FÍSICO Y HUMILLANTE. Lima, 2009. Web. 27 July 2010. .
Hummingbird. Dir. Holly Mosher. 2007. DVD.
M. Isabel. Niños De La Calle/Street Children. Photograph. Lima, Peru. Bubblepics (Lima, Peru). 26 May 2008. Web. 27 July 2010. .
"Street Children in Peru." Toybox - Let the Street Children in Latin America Live through Child Sponsorship. Web. 28 July 2010. .
"Violencia Y Maltrato Infantil." UNICEF En El Peru. Web. 27 July 2010. .
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