Group says negative social norms promotes sexual harassment

From: Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

The Hope for Community and Children Initiative, (H4CC), has said some negative social norms practiced in some communities encourages sexual harassment, and corporal punishment of students both in public and private schools in Kaduna State.
The Executive Director of H4CC, Hadiza Umar, asserted this during a one day validation exercise of research findings on the effects of Social Norms on sexual harassment and corporal punishment in public and private schools held in Kaduna yesterday.
According to her, some negative social norms include; the notion that teachers and parents must beat the children as a sign of authority, whether the child does wrong or not; reporting rape cases are viewed as shameful to the family of the victim, so the matter is swept under the carpet.
Others include, blaming the girl-child for gender-based violence against her because she did not respect the man, and when raped society quickly pointed fingers on her mode of dressing.
Hadiza who described social norms as the perceived informal, mostly unwritten, rules that define acceptable and appropriate actions within a given group or community, guides human behaviour, which sometimes result in negativity
She further explained that norms increased the risk of sexual violence and shape beliefs, attitudes, behaviours, and influence sense of what’s acceptable and not acceptable within a community or society at large.
“When we understand norms as a key factor that shapes the likelihood of sexual violence and harassment, we can see more clearly what needs to change and which strategies will be effective,” she said.
Hadiza stressed that H4CC
started conducting the research in 2021 as a result of monitoring sexual harassment in the society. “What we did was that we selected five Local government Areas – Makarfi, Kaduna North, Kaduna South Kajuru and Kauru.”
Speaking about the research, an Activist, Mallam Isa Suleiman, said the main objectives of study was to examine the nature, magnitude of how social normal norms impact on sexual harassment and corporal punishment in selected schools in the state.
He observed that the study provides evidence on the effect of social norms on School Related Gender-Based Violence, (SRGBV), and to understand the social norms that drive the heightened cases of sexual harassment and corporal punishment in schools, community, homes and its effect on education outcome.