An utterly destructive mindset has permeated the consciousness of the young
Two instances of violence by children in the past week expose the frightening reality that our kids are indeed displaying unknown behaviour patterns and aggression and that they may need psychological rehabilitation at the earliest. Barely had we gotten over the murder of Pradyuman by a senior schoolmate hoping to delay exams when we came upon two instances of chilling severity. One was the sexual assault on a four-year-old girl by her classmate, all of five, who allegedly pushed a pencil into her private parts, and the other was the gruesome stabbing of a young man in a bus by five schoolboys who had stolen a cellphone from him.
The issue is not just about counselling a five-year-old juvenile offender and nurturing him back to healthy ways of life but to understand how he was exposed to sexual bestiality at such an early age or was abused himself to take his hurt out on others and assume it to be a normal 'prank'. Among teens and young adults, murder as the tool of ultimate annihilation, rebellion or attention-seeking proves that the younger generation has already tilted over the edge. The bus killing, in fact, seems a throwback to the old hunter world logic of protecting what one has wrested and killing the vanquished.
The utterly destructive bent of mind is a consequence of exposure to socio-ethnic and conflict-related violence and unwittingly a media-induced escalation of images. Recent psychoanalytic studies by researchers have revealed that the long-term impact of the visual feeds, courtesy a more “informed” atmosphere, and the use of violence as a tool for commanding societal subservience, are leaving an indelible impression on even toddlers. Growing up under a sense of threat perception, they no longer have the comfort of innocence and are resorting to violence as their autonomous territory. If there is instability in what they are taught as ideal benchmarks, then children are reclaiming their relevance through acts that are extraordinary.
A gnawing insecurity is not only about external violence but violations and alienation inside the home and the community. In Delhi alone, crimes against children in schools, both public and private, are disturbingly common. The Delhi Police receives no less than 20 calls pertaining to fights inside or around schools involving hot-headed students. Pushed to a corner, anger and outrage form the easiest springboard for counter-violence. With the space for dialogue shrinking inside homes, too, and a surfeit of images playing on isolationist devices, there's no way kids can process the world around them. In nuclear set-ups, it is even more difficult. Working parents, particularly in cities, are indulgent out of guilt, and lulling the children into believing that they will get whatever they want. This sense of easy ‘gettability' as opposed to the discipline of denial has further led to the feeling that anything goes. In extreme cases, this mutilation of one's immediate and distasteful environment is turning into self-destruction or suicide, over something as flimsy as jilted love or exams.It is pointless to just steer the discourse of aberrant child behaviour to safety protocols at schools and institutions; we need to concentrate on creating support group mechanisms, friendly counselling centres and engaging the young with the more positive aspects of life. The NSS was an active network for social service by students. Maybe it is time to revive and upgrade such holistic plans at the school level.