While 34% parents admitted to threats of violence, 25% confessed to having used the fear of hostels
In what could add to the demographics of the city, a survey conducted by Early Childhood Association (ECA) across five cities in the country has revealed that nearly 75 per cent parents from Ahmedabad threaten their children quite often. Not only this, parents also agreed to have told kids the following -- 'I will hit you', 'Mummy-daddy will go away', 'We will put you in boarding school, someone will take you away', and 'I will not give you what you want'.
A total of 34 per cent of them agreed that they quite often say, 'I will hit you', to get their work done, whereas 25 per cent said that since children fear hostels, they use it as means to get work done from them.
The survey, conducted from January to March, involved 15,000 parents from Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Pune and Chennai, with children between the ages 3 to 12 years. The results are being considered as worrisome by experts, who say it is time to educate parents about the negative effects of these methods.
Commenting on the study, Swati Popat Vats, President, ECA said, "We started the survey when several parents approached us saying their children would hide things from them. We realised that the trend of threats and keeping secrets starts from home itself. In many instances, parents threaten their children by saying if they do not do as is told, they will be sent to a hostel. Similarly, predators are misusing this fact and threatening children by saying that their mother will die or remain unhappy if they disclose a secret.
"And as such, children learn to listen to threats from home. Unknowingly, many times, parents ask children to keep secrets. Either the grandparents tell the child to not tell her/his parents that they allowed the child to eat an ice-cream or parents tell the child to not tell grandparents if they are returning home late."
Child psychiatrist, Param Shukla, recommends the 'token economy' method to be adopted by parents. He said, "Threatening is a very common phenomenon in India and parents term it as a way to discipline their children.
Children of the present age should not be threatened in any way. Even if the child is misbehaving severely, he/she could be threatened with something the parents can actually do, such as reducing the play time. Or it could be something that does not instil fear in them."
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