The recent viral video circulating in the internet, involving some school students bullying one of their school mates, has once again taken Nagaland by storm resulting in wide scale condemnation and upheaval among the students, parents and school community. While the act of bullying as witnessed in the video is condemnable, the very act of circulating such videos on the internet also needs to be condemned by all and sundry as it has potential to further escalate the matter and ruin the image of the children and their parents concerned including the child who had been bullied. It has also, no doubt, affected the reputation and image of the school as some of the children were in the uniform of a reputed educational institution.
This particular case is just a tip of the bigger iceberg whereby such acts of bullying in our society have been either not addressed by the stakeholders or they have been completely given a blind eye. Bullying, in all forms, can affect everyone—those who are bullied, those who bully, and those who witness bullying. Bullying is linked to many negative outcomes including impacts on mental health, substance use, and even suicide. It is one of the gravest issues underlying our society in present times especially involving the Gen-Z, which is influenced by mobile phones and social media more than ever before.
Having said the above, we have to understand and address this issue very meticulously. Children and teenagers who feel secure and supported by their family, school, and peers are less likely to bully. However, some youth do not have these types of support. Every individual is unique and there are many factors that can contribute to bullying behavior. A youth who bullies may experience one, several, or none of these contributing factors. These contributing factors may be to attain or maintain social power or to elevate their status in their peer group, to show their allegiance to and fit in with their peer group, to exclude others from their peer group, to show who is and is not part of the group or to control the behavior of their peers through dominance.
Whatever may be the reasons for bullying, it is considered as a grave offence in many of the developed as well as developing countries. Many countries, including Japan, have stringent laws in place to address the issue of bullying. In Japan, Act No. 71 of June 28, 2013 has been specifically designed to control acts of bullying in schools. This has resulted in safer schools and overall a more mature society where people do not tolerate any act of bullying or harassment. However, sadly to this day, India even after being the largest democracy in the world, has failed to address the issue of bullying in as far as bringing reforms in its law and justice is concerned. Till date India does not have any specific Anti-Bullying Law, apart from Anti-Ragging Laws for Colleges & Higher Educational Institutions, except some legal provisions whereby schools and colleges are advised or directed to implement their own anti-bullying policies and committees. It is therefore high time that India promulgates its own Anti-Bullying Bill and brings about a separate and stringent law on Anti-Bullying. This will go a long way in addressing the issue of bullying, especially among school and college going students.
Apart for the law and administration, it is high time that our society takes a decisive stand in this matter and start considering bullying as a mental health issue rather than a mere discipline issue. As for individuals or groups pointing their fingers and accusing the schools only for this malady, let us be matured enough to understand that a child spends only about 5-6 hours per day in the school whereas the remaining of their time is spent with their parents, guardians, siblings, relatives or their neighbours. This entails that the onus of addressing the issue of bullying does not lie solely on the schools but also on the parents, guardians, the neighbourhood and even the religious places of worship which they attend. Instead of pin-pointing their fingers only on the schools, we should all make a collective effort in controlling this menace which has traumatized many children as well as their parents for quite some time now. All the schools should also bring about child friendly reforms in their school policies whereby there should be zero-tolerance against any acts of violence or bullying. Moreover, there should also be provisions for setting up anti-bullying committees as well as addressing the issue of mental health in all the schools whereby proper counseling can be provided to students by certified and qualified counselors. Moreover, parents and elders of the society should also inculcate good behavior and decent manners so that children learn from them and cultivate good habits rather than aggressive and violent behaviour. All these will definitely go a long way in addressing the issue of bullying and its adverse effects.
While the purported viral video may have positive ramifications of bringing to book the alleged culprits, it may have a far reaching negative effect as well as the identity of the children and the school can be compromised. This is an offence in itself as, under Section 74(1) of The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, no report in any newspaper, magazine, news-sheet or audio-visual media or other forms of communication regarding any inquiry or investigation or judicial procedure, shall disclose the name, address or school or any other particulars, which may lead to the identification of a child in conflict with law or a child in need of care and protection or a child victim or witness of a crime, involved in such matter, under any other law for the time being in force, nor shall the picture of any such child be published. Therefore, this should also serve as a wake-up call for all those tech-savvy vloggers a.k.a youtubers and keypad warriors to understand the law before uploading any sensitive content or commenting on the internet.
With everyone’s collective effort, including that of the government, law enforcing agencies, civil society organizations, students’ bodies, churches, social activists, media houses and of course schools, colleges, parents and students themselves, we can take positive measures in controlling and eradicating the diabolical menace of Bullying once and for all. We can no longer be lukewarm and indifferent in this drastic situation when our own children are affected by this evil. As the Nobel Prize winner and South African Bishop Desmond Tutu had once remarked “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Dr. Andrew Ahoto Sema
CBSE Coordinator, Nagaland