There is national and international concern about the effects of corporal punishment upon
children, and its implications for their capacity to benefit from school, yet corporal punishment
is still widely used in schools all over the world, despite being banned in national legislation in
most countries. Nevertheless, the topic is under-researched in developing countries. This
working paper discusses the experiences of children aged between 8 and 16 in Andhra
Pradesh, India. It draws on analysis of Young Lives household survey and school survey
data to produce descriptive statistics to give an indication of the extent of corporal and other
forms of punishment in schools. The paper also draws on analysis of three rounds of
qualitative data from interviews with children and with their parents or caregivers as well as
in-depth interviews undertaken as part of the school survey. The paper explores children’s
accounts of forms of punishment, how poverty is linked to corporal punishment, the reasons
children give for punishment, how the punishment makes them feel, and the consequences
punishment has not only for the quality of their learning at school, but also for the decisions
they make about staying on in school or leaving school to start working.