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Further, more awareness raising on what is appropriate chastisement is needed. The
Situational Analysis of VC in 2011 presented these findings:
All caregivers were asked whether any child had been disciplined for any behavioural
problems in the three months prior to the survey. This affected 9.2% of all children who
had been hit or shaken in response to a perceived behavioural problem. In the majority
of these cases, an implement was used (75.1%), with the child hit on the bottom (40%),
hand/arm/leg (26.8%), or face/head/ears (6.8%). In 15.4% of all cases, a bruise or other
mark was left on the child due to the punishment. This means that a total of 1.4% of all
children had been physically punished to such an extent that it left a mark.
In a separate section of the questionnaire, in households where there was at least one
child aged 12-17 years, the children themselves were asked whether physical discipline
was necessary to raise a child. A total of 40.8% of the children agreed with the
statement. Of these children, 14.3% said that they had been called a name or called
stupid in the three months before the survey.
This analysis stems from the data on the following page, collected for the Situational
Analysis of VC in 2011: