Caning and LGBTQ issues: How did we become so backward?

In love with the good old cane

- By Gamini Akmeemana

India's LGBTQ tourism sector is doing well

The ongoing debate about abolishing corporal punishment in Sri Lankan schools is lively. It is also deplorable because, as far as this writer is concerned, the consensus should be overwhelmingly towards abolishing corporal punishment. Unfortunately, opinion seems to be strongly for retaining a sadistic and cruel system of punishment which is now illegal in most countries.

Let's look at the international picture. Corporal or physical punishment against children in any form is totally banned in 68 countries, while such punitive action in schools is banned in 128 countries, including our neighbour India. To look at the South Asian region is eyeopening.

It is banned in Pakistan following the Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Act of 2021. It is banned in all Pakistani educational institutions, including public and private schools, and religious seminaries.

It is banned in Bangladesh. It was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2011 and prohibited by the Ministry of Education.

It is banned in Nepal, not only in schools, but also at home after a new Act relating to children passed in 2018. It replaced the Children Act of 1992, which defended the use of 'scolding and minor beating'.

All our neighbours in the South Asian region, big or small, are ahead of us in this vital area. But the idea of finally retiring the cane (or the foot ruler on the knuckles, another form of torture described as 'disciplining' during my school days) makes our teachers, parents and even the clergy stand up and protest.