A boy is dead apparently because he did not fit social ideas of what is “normal”. His mother is fighting for justice. No parent should have to ever go through this again.
The unpalatable truth is that bullying remains the most common form of violence across schools. (airborne)
In the note he wrote before he jumped to his death from the balcony of his home in Faridabad on February 25, the 16-year-old wrote: “The school has killed me… especially higher authorities.”
Police have arrested the headmistress of DPS, Greater Faridabad. A police complaint lodged by the boy’s mother, a teacher in the same school, alleges that he was harassed over his sexuality and the school took no heed, a charge denied by the school management.
But, the unpalatable truth is that bullying remains the most common form of violence across schools.
“School can be a very hostile place, one of the worst places to be. I have had a very bitter personal experience of bullying both of my sister and younger daughter just because they were not good at science and maths,” says Nilakshi Roy, a school teacher. “My sister was called ‘commode’ and my daughter would return home to lie down sobbing on her bed. Unfortunately, the teachers were party to this bullying.”
If you identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, or intersex (LGBTQI), then that bullying is intensified with more than half, 54%, of LGBTQI students in Europe saying they had been bullied as a result of their sexual orientation, according to research released by Unesco in May 2021.
In India, the National Human Rights Commission found that 82% of transgender people in four Uttar Pradesh districts had never been to school or dropped out by Class 10.
Often, teachers are ignorant about issues around sexuality, diversity, and inclusion. In November 2021, the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) had a chance to set that right when it uploaded its first training manual to sensitize teachers to different gender orientations. But within a week, the manual was inexplicably taken down, reportedly over fears of ‘moral pollution’ voiced in several quarters, including by the chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).
“Teachers should be sensitized. We have a stronger, large-hearted role to play,” says Roy who started an online petition to have the NCERT manual restored. Nothing happened; not one person she wrote to bothered to reply.
Yet, now is the time to act. Schools need to set up monitoring systems to check bullying for which there must be zero tolerance, much in the manner that colleges have set up anti-ragging policies. Students must be able to access online portals where bullying can be reported to the school management. And counselors must be available to talk to both those who bully and those who are.
The Madras high court, in a recent order, directed the state government to take measures ‘needed for eliminating prejudices’ in schools and colleges, among other places. This directive must be followed not just in Tamil Nadu but across the country.
A boy is dead apparently because he did not fit social ideas of what is “normal”. His mother is fighting for accountability and justice. No parent should have to ever go through this again.
Namita Bhandare writes on gender
The views expressed are personal