Kids are the most revered beings in this world. Parents struggle hard to ensure that their kid’s lead a cosy life. They take all the pain to see the smile in the kid’s face. They guide them from Day 1 of their arrival in this world. To some extent, they ensure that they are with them but due to various reasons, they need to be away from them, for a while. It is because they too need to go to work and earn and, in the meanwhile, the baby is now grown into a kid. This is where, the next important stage in the life comes up.  This is what we call/term it as “Schooling”.

There is a popular saying which goes like this “God cannot be everywhere and hence HE created Mother”. This is absolutely true since it is the mother who conceive and take care of the kid with utmost care for almost 10 months and post birth, she nurtures the kid until they are ready to be sent for schooling. This is where, these kids are introduced to “Teacher” who is considered as equivalent to a parent. This is because the kids spend a good 8-10 hours in the school, under the supervision of the teachers.

While majority of them take care of the children as their own, there are few who take advantage of the trust and try to make the life of the kids miserable. We were not aware of these incidents a few decades ago but due to the advent of technology and social media, these days, we get to know about anything and everything, literally, in seconds. There has been a disturbing trend which was noticed in the recent times where these innocent kids were abused and molested during their schooling days. Despite the lockdown, a teacher belonging to a popular city school tried to misbehave with the girl students online. How disgusting and shameful this is….

Why do these incidents happen?

1. Kids are handed over to the teachers by the parents who has massive respect on them.
2. They fail to check as to what is happening in the school on a daily basis.
3. The aspirations of the kids were taken as an advantage for these molesters who try to take an undue advantage over them which is a sheer misuse of power.
4. Kids are either innocent (to know what exactly is happening to them) or were coerced with threats and other consequences making them not to open their mouth.
5. To some extent, the lyrics which are shown in the movies/web series are also responsible for this. When these so-called songs have pedophilic content, it creates an image on the mindset of the kids that those actions weren’t incorrect.

How to prevent it?

1. Parents should educate the kids about “Good Touch” and “Bad Touch”. Awareness is the need of the hour.
2. Parents need to speak to the kids on a daily basis and find out as to what exactly is happening in their school/institute/academy.
3. More care should be given to the girl child. We must ensure that they are brought up without any fear and to report any malafide intentions/misbehavior without giving a second thought.
4. Self Defense should be taught to the kids. Girl students should always carry the “Pepper Spray” for their self-defense.
5. Stricter laws should be made which enforces capital punishment(death) to child abusers/molesters. Only when something like this is in place, the offenders would not think about doing such a heinous crime.
6. No mercy should be shown on such offender irrespective of his caste, creed, religion and political background and should be reprimanded immediately with non-bailable warrant.
7. If possible, each and every class be it online or offline should be monitored through recording/web cam.

By Sarath Babu S

Sarath Babu S is an MBA and MCA Graduate and holds an honorary doctorate. He is a Melwin Jones Fellow and also Fellow of United Writers Association of India. Having worked with top notch brands, Sarath is presently pursuing his career as an independent digital marketer where he has helped 100’s of brands to leverage on social media platforms since 2012. Sarath is also one of the top books and restaurant reviewers in India.