MAKING SCHOOLS SAFER IN INDIA

Self-harm is the biggest cause of death of 13 to 17-year-olds in India.* Mental health awareness in our country is abysmally low to deal with the consequences of emotional and psycho-social abuse that is going on. Emotional abuse stems from bullying, teacher humiliation, peer pressure, a tough learning syllabus and parental expectations. Some indicators of emotional abuse are depression, anxiety, obsessions, suicidal behaviour and substance abuse.

Students who commit suicide do not necessarily have mental illness. Their coping mechanism to deal with small frustrations, failure or loss is poor, according to Dr Harish Shetty, psychiatrist at Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital. Any event relating to one’s immediate environment may result in an emotionally traumatic experience.

According to the World Health Organisation, the mental health workforce in India for 100,000 people is 0.3 psychiatrists, 0.12 nurses, 0.07 psychologists and 0.07 social workers, which translates to about one person to care for 200,000 people.

* Source: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

Education departments issue frequent orders to schools for installing CCTV cameras and ending corporal punishment. There is an effort to prevent the visible physical and sexual abuse of children, but very little is being done to prevent the invisible emotional abuse. This is the silent killer.

The need for child protection officers at schools and children’s projects

A district child protection officer estimates that 50,000 children in her district are at high risk of emotional abuse and neglect due to family discord and discrimination at home and at school. There is only one child protection officer for each district supported by a handful of social workers.

Viva has trained teachers and childcare workers in 150 schools and projects, and we found that almost all of them don’t have a designated child protection officer to make teachers aware of symptoms of emotional abuse.