A four-year-old child trembles at the sound of loud noise. When it comes to school, there is now only one thing on his small lips—“School is bad, I won’t go to school anymore.” At an age when school should be a joyful place filled with the scent of new books and the chatter of friends, fear has already taken root in his mind.

On 18 January this year, the child was subjected to physical punishment at a kindergarten named Sharmin Academy in the Naya Paltan area of the capital. Since then, he has not been able to return to school.

He is not alone. Across the country, thousands of children subjected to corporal punishment in schools and madrasas are silently carrying such invisible wounds—marks that are often deeper in the mind than on the body.

Numerous videos of such punishment in educational institutions have spread across social media—some showing caning, some forcing children to squat holding their ears, and others even showing punishment by submerging children in water. On 25 January, a video of children being forced to squat holding their ears at the central playground of Dhaka University went viral, drawing criticism toward DUCSU member Sarbamitra Chakma; authorities later issued him a warning.

Although laws and campaigns exist worldwide to end all forms of punishment against children, it has not been eliminated in practice. Against this backdrop, the International Day to End Corporal Punishment of Children is being observed today, 30 April. The observance began under an initiative titled “End Violence Partnership,” and the World Health Organisation joined the initiative in 2023.