Children raise concerns over excessive punishments, Child labor

By Elias Hakizimana.

Children from various sectors in Nyarugenge District in the City of Kigali have called on parents, teachers and care givers to stop imposing them severe punishments and engaging them in worst forms of works that are beyond their age and body capacity.

Under the organization Children Voice Today (CVT), these children have learnt a lot from the field where they are trained and equipped to assess various problems facing their peers and they have testimonies on the issues of violence of child rights in terms of wellbeing.

Ramadhan Mutiganda, 17, the children representative in Nyarugenge district said that children were used in Sugarcane plantations during Covid-19 and their parents played a role in involving them in such energy exhausting activities.

He listed various excessive punishments parents and teachers used to impose children and these include long-time kneeling in the sand or on the covers of beer, hanging the legs on the wall, violent sticks on the body and others that harm their hearts.

“It hurts my heart when I find a parents who does not understand the rights of his/her child, sometimes I can’t blame such a parent because he/she is not aware of children’s rights, they still engage children in the works that are beyond their age and capacity, it is not bad that a child can learn to work but parents should know what kind of work a child can do according to his/her age and energy.” Mutiganda said.

He added that such forms of works contribute to low performance of children when they go to school.

“A child will not manage to succeed to Mathematics, Geography, Biology after climbing the mountain from the valley to fetch water. After coming to fetch water, a child eats quickly and runs to school, what kind of results are you expecting from this child’s performance in the lessons?” Mutiganda asks parents.

“We do not deny correction and punishments of parents but, I request officials who have children’s rights in their responsibilities to advise parents to talk to children before imposing immediate violent punishments. I can’t forget a child from Tabaro sector, Nyarugenge district whom I met with wounds on his knees after being given a punishment by his parents to kneel down on the covers of bottles of beer.” Mutiganda added.

He requests officials to hire someone who is in charge of children’s issues at every cell to make sure that children’s rights are realized.

Jeannette Abihirwe, another child from Nyarugenge district said that teachers should be trained about children rights and how they can be punished in order to avoid bad punishments.

It has been observed that some children join adults’ works in order to find money to buy materials and other stuffs because their parents denied or can’t afford to provide them with the basic needs.

Oreste Bagaragaza, the representative of children in Kigali sector said: “I think that when the friends of families help us to organize adequate meetings with parents can help us to talk to them and expose our issues.” He said.

Seraphin, an official from AJPRODHO-JIJUKIRWA said that they train parents on child rights and child violence to avoid all the punishments that harass children physically, morally and undermine their dignity.

He urged children to continue reporting the cases of parents who give excessive punishments to children so that they can be approached and educated.

“We do not know all these punishments parents give to children, we request children representatives to keep following on the cases and report so that we proceed by educating the parents.” He said.

Diane Uwase, another child said that parents should first give advice to a child before making another decision for big punishment. “They should show a child his/her errors and advise him once, twice even third and give him another punishment later like beating him regarding his age.” Diane said.

Jean Paul, the in-charge of social affairs in Kigali sector said that a punishment can be positive between the one who punish and who is punished.

Among the discussions that were raised by children and officials, they concluded that a child must be punished with love and parents are not deprived of their rights to punish their children.

Innocent Ntakirutimana, Child Protection and Participation Programme Coordinator at Children Voice Today (CVT) said that underage labour and bad violent punishments given to children are still issues of concern that affect their social and psychological future.

“No child should be treated in such a context, when a child is involved in underage works or punished violently, it is a loss to the nation. We conduct advocacy from the grassroots to high level entities including ministries and parliament to find solutions to these issues.” Ntakirutimana said.

Innocent Ntakirutimana, Child Protection and Participation Programme Coordinator at Children Voice Today (CVT).

Law statement

Article 3 of the law n°71/2018 of 31/08/2018 relating to the protection of the child states that excessive punishment is an excessive punishment imposed to a child regardless of his/her age that cause emotional suffering or may be harmful to his/her health.

Article 28 of this law states that a person who harasses a child or imposes severe or degrading punishments including corporal sanctions on him/her, commits an offence. Upon conviction, he/she is liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than two (2) years and not more than three (3) years, and a fine of not less than two hundred thousand Rwandan francs (FRW 200,000) and not more than three hundred thousand Rwandan francs (FRW 300,000).

The second paragraph of this article states that: “Without prejudice to heavier penalties provided for by other laws, if the offence results in the child’s disability, the penalty is imprisonment for a term of not less than seven (7) years and not more than ten (10) years, and a fine of not less than one million Rwandan francs (FRW 1,000,000) and not more than two million Rwandan francs (FRW 2,000,000).”