Bullying on campus to get punishable act in schools

NEW DELHI: The government is actively considering a proposal to make bullying on campus a punishable act in schools after an expert panel headed by the chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) flagged it as a “critical” problem in a report submitted to the Union human resource development ministry recently.

There is already a no-tolerance policy toward ragging in colleges as directed by the Supreme Court. However, there’s no such code for bullying in schools. According to sources, the expert committee has expressed a strong “need to develop an anti-bullying policy and effective strategies, including both preventive and intervention measures”.

The panel, comprising school principals, psychologists and education secretaries of different states, was set up during the UPA government. Its report, submitted last month, proposes punishments for bullying including oral and written warnings, fines, suspensions for a specified period, withholding of examination results and expulsion from school in extreme cases.

The committee also wants the government to direct all schools to form an anti-bullying committee and have a fulltime counselor on campus, launch a national helpline to report cases and set up an independent monitoring agency for such complaints. The panel has also recommended that schools allow victims to report cases anonymously.

Although there isn’t any formal definition of bullying in schools, the ways in which students are harassed include teasing, name calling, physical intimidation and gossip. For an anti-bullying policy, the government will have to define the act, as it’s done for ragging in colleges. School bullying usually goes unreported but instances have surfaced recently on social media, creating a furore. In March this year, a phone video showed a group of class VI students physically and verbally abusing another from class VII at a prominent south Delhi school. Such intimidation is pervasive across age groups, according to an expert.

“Schools have started waking up to the problem of bullying, but they need to articulate a policy to clarify what is acceptable and what isn't. Bullying doesn't happen only in senior classes, it's also prevalent in primary sections. Punishment is not a solution. It's important to have a fulltime counselor on campus to find out why a child is bullying others,” said child psychologist Aparna S Gharpure.