Workshop on child rights organised at Majha House

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 18

“We are living in a world where we have turned children into products as their worth is defined by their performance in academics. After burdening them with expectations, we question why so many are vulnerable to stress-related disorders and inability to express themselves,” said child rights activist Enakshi Ganguly, who has been working as researcher and trainer for the past three decades, while interacting with The Tribune.

Conducting a workshop along with Ruma Purkayastha, an educator at the Majha House, Enakshi did activities focused on encouraging children to share their deepest feelings concerned with emotions, like anger, hate and fear. “I asked them did they stress out about parent-teacher meetings and the answer of most of them was no because they were toppers. But we need to address the ones who aren’t toppers of their classes,” she said while explaining the concept of stress among kids. She stated the case of Ryan school murder wherein a senior child killed a junior just to avoid a parent-teacher meeting about to be held in school because he was stressed out about it.

“That’s why we conduct such workshops to create an environment where children find a common ground and express themselves, talk about issues that they usually cannot,” said Enakshi.

Ruma, who retired as principal of Navy Children School, New Delhi, had her workshop focused on making children aware about sexual abuse. She told children how to identify sexual undertones to separate a good touch from a bad touch and the concept of consent that was explained through a film – Tea and Consent. They also encouraged the children to break barriers and taboos of silence and shame associated with sexual abuse. They told them that sometimes children blame themselves for what has happened and feel guilty. “That is one of the reasons why children keep quiet and thus unconsciously and unwittingly encourage the perpetrators to keep on abusing them. This continued abuse can have serious psychological damage and repercussions for the victims,” shared Ruma.

Ruma said that both parents and schools are equally responsible for putting unrealistic expectations from children. “Somehow, this entire exercise of counting a person’s success with money has resulted in our children feeling burdened, pushed over and their childhood is being overshadowed by how many marks they score in boards. Parents need to acknowledge the child’s natural ability and keep the communication open.”