Empowering Communities to Address Violence Against Children: Baseline report

This report analyses findings on violence against children and child discipline from a baseline survey conducted on “Empowering Communities to Address Violence against Children in Bhutan” piloted in three districts – Thimphu, Dagana and Zhemgang – out of 20 districts in the country. Three different sets of questionnaires were administered to children, parents/caregivers, and teachers. In the case of children, only those aged 10 to 13 years and are currently studying in class IV to class VII located in three piloted districts were included. In general, the questionnaire asked whether children experienced physical, psychological and sexual violence at home and school in the last 12 months. The parents/caregiver and teacher’s questionnaire covered physical and psychological violent disciplinary practices, some of which were physical (such as shaking, hitting and beating) while others were psychological (such as shouting, yelling, name calling and threatening to beat), including non-violent disciplinary practices. The survey also collected information from parents/caregivers and teachers about their attitudes and beliefs regarding the need for physical and psychological child discipline in child-rearing.