Just like any regular routine, the counsellor Ms. Deepika Singh was keen on selecting an interesting topic for the students in intervention school in Mumbai. With her past two years of experience, many cases of bullying were reported to her. Initially she would hear out the cases of the victims in individual sessions. However, this did not yield much success. Then it struck her to address this concern on a bigger platform.
Let’s learn little about it…
Bullying is an aggressive behaviour affecting individuals not only in their adolescent years, but also well into their adulthood. Bullying manifests in various forms in school context such as verbal, social, physical or sexual. This can lead to psychological trauma. Bullying behaviour is recognized by an imbalance of power, repetitiveness and the intention of bullying to harm the victim. Keeping this in mind, sessions were planned carefully keeping in view the age of the child and the learning capacity.
A scar on the child’s mind and psyche can be very difficult to heal as it has a long-term effect on the personality. Some carry bitter and painful memories of such childhood scars right till the end of their lives.
The SMHEAP – समीप (Shikshantraa Plus Mental Health Education & Awareness Programme) intervention of KHUSHII under the Shikshaantra Plus programme works to promote the physical, psychological and social development of children in Government schools. It focuses on holistic development of children including the challenges of academic performance and mental wellbeing. The SMHEAP programme approaches the issue through modules designed to deal and eliminate bullying in school. These modules, explains the manifestation of such behaviour, through pictures and illustrations. Children are engaged to recognize different acts of bullying and through discussions their minds are opened about its occurrence in their own schools.
