The manner in which Indian society treats its children and adolescents presents a sad tale of daunting inadequacies in the performance of the present generation in discharging its obligations to the generations ahead. We often talk of child trafficking, child labour, mortality and malnutrition with our heads bowed down. Even those who reach schools, including private high fee-charging ones, are not safe and secure. Girls remain particularly vulnerable. More often than not, the apathy and inaction on the part of the system create sheer despondency.
Practically every day one comes across reports from various places of the country of girls committing suicides because of harassment. A 16-year-old girl from a Mayur Vihar school in Delhi committed suicide on March 21. Parents alleged sexual harassment by two teachers. When they tried to approach the principal, they were denied an audience. This child wanted to be a doctor, to save the lives of other people. On March 24, a 17-year-old girl student of a government school fed up with the stalking by a neighbour committed suicide in Delhi. She was keen to become a police inspector to serve others. All these; and many more tragedies could have been avoidable if the systems were alert and active, if the credibility of the Indian police was not really poor.
In all such cases, laxity of action on earlier reports by the police figures prominently. Obviously, social systems in urban areas are practically non-existent and in any case, people are too busy to care for others. The societal apathy is witnessed in its most inhuman manifestation when a road accident victim is left unattended, and people pass by hurriedly, while some others are making videos.All this reverberates intensely in my mind as I read a report in the inner pages of a national daily about a Class I child in an English medium school of Pune. He had made a spelling mistake—this is a crime in majority of such schools which more often than not issue instructions that anyone using mother tongue while conversing would be dealt with strictly.
The teacher hit him with the duster, and still not satisfied, banged his head on the desk. This is not for the first time that such cases of thrashing of innocent children suffering in an alien medium of instruction are reported in the media. The craze for English medium is inflicting immeasurable stress on children in their sensitive years, and no one seems to be worried about it.The inhuman punishment inflicted on the child reminds one of what Mahatma Gandhi wrote in Young India of September 1, 1921: “The foreign medium has caused brain fag, put an undue strain on the nerves of our children, made them crammers and imitators, unfitted them from original work and thought, and disabled them from filtrating their learning to the family or the masses. The foreign medium has made our children practically foreigners in their own land. It is the greatest tragedy of the existing system.”
The tragedy continues with added force even in independent India in the 21st century. The Mahatma spoke on various occasions on the consequences of our love for English. Could parents reconsider his views?
The safety and security of the child in school is the responsibility of the school. Accountability must be fixed, and strict compliance ensured. Parents must find adequate time to talk to their child, and keep in touch with the school and teachers. Even the slightest discomfort with any teacher must be carefully attended to. And finally, the system must know that not everyone deserves to be a teacher.
rajput_js@yahoo.co.in