Clip 1 of 2: Boys lined up for caning at a college in Rawalpindi (10 seconds)

HERE IS THE CLIP:

Clip 2 of 2: Mass caning in a Pakistan schoolyard (1 min. 6 secs)

This was filmed at a school in Azad Kashmir -- the part of Jammu & Kashmir administered by Pakistan.

    In the schoolyard are several boys under punishment. The schoolmaster goes around caning them in turn. Most have to bend over for two strokes on the backside, or in one case the small of the back. One is reluctant to submit, and has to be pushed into position. Another student, for no apparent reason, is disciplined on his hands instead. It all seems depressingly arbitrary and slapdash.

    The strokes are clearly not very hard, although some of them sting enough to cause two or three of the recipients to hold or rub their bottoms. When we get a glimpse of the cane we can see that it is moderately thick but not especially long.

    The overall impression given is that this is a very common occurrence at the school, implemented inconsistently -- almost randomly -- and for probably trivial reasons, and not taken very seriously by either the master or the boys. Personally I feel that the value of CP is dangerously undermined when it is dished out as casually and routinely as this, particularly when no great care is being taken to deliver the strokes properly.

    To be effective, a caning should in my view be a solemn ceremony, reserved for relatively serious misbehaviour, delivered hard but safely with care and accuracy. Singapore schools set the example here. I am inclined to think that, when a caning is justified at all, it needs be given with enough vigour to make a significant impression, otherwise the currency of the whole disciplinary regime is devalued, and CP risks degenerating into random, casual, pointless, daily brutality -- which does indeed seem to be what has happened on a wide scale in the Indian subcontinent since independence in 1947.

HERE IS THE CLIP: