Violence upon children rife

A majority of parents and students questioned by a local counseling center have either doled out or been on the receiving end of physical discipline, according to the center's findings.

The center particularly looked at students in migrant schools, surveying 10,000 parents and children in 13 schools.

"The parents of children at those schools see physical punishment as a necessary way to promote discipline," said Guo Yongshui from Beijing Maple Psychological Counseling Center, who has worked on a parent-child relationship program in migrant schools for five years.

Meanwhile, a number of high-profile domestic abuse cases have hit the headlines, including that of two girls stabbed and killed by their mother, from Fujian Province, on May 26 in Fengtai district. The neighbors alleged that abuse had continued for at least a year.

And 10-year-old Zhu Zhengyin, from Sichuan Province, is now being treated in a Beijing hospital with the help of a charity, after his mother attacked him with a knife, cutting him 100 times. His older brother, 13, did not survive.

The mother allegedly had hit her two children many times out of discontent from being left behind by her husband, who worked in Anhui Province. She later committed suicide.

Tong Lihua, a lawyer with the Beijing Youth Legal Aid and Research Center, said that the conclusions of a report he conducted basically tally with Guo's findings.

More than 53 percent of domestic violence cases against children took place in migrant families, Tong's report found. The center investigated 338 child domestic violence cases reported in the media over the past four years.

"Having poorly educated parents with frequent changes in life means children can fall victim to domestic violence more easily," said Tong.

"The parents often consider their children as 'private property' and think violence is justified if it's for the child's own good," said Tong.

"Only two percent of the domestic violence cases were reported to the police over our surveyed period, as families believe 'educating' children is a family matter," Tong noted.

One problem is that there are no specific child abuse laws, said Tong, as parents can only be charged with abuse of a family member. Nor is there a clear legal definition of where to draw the line between physical discipline and abuse, he said.

Hu Ming, principal of Ming Xin Migrant Children School, Changping district, said he does not know of any abuse cases among his over 1,000 students.

"It's important to be aware of the problem of child abuse, but I don't think it's fair to point the finger at a particular group of people," said Hu.

"Migrant workers with lower incomes are just as nurturing as anyone," said Hu.