In the period of Physical Education the girl students were asked to run for fifty meters or go for skipping. Initially girls thought that it was a part of warm up session before the actual teaching. It was considered a part of the curriculum. After two weeks students noticed that during the session, the teacher used to give a dirty eye on the specific parts of their body. When they lodged a complaint, it was found that on the basis of this ill manner the teacher was transferred from his earlier school. The management was least worried to know that after his punishment transfer his attitude changed or not. Even whether the teacher took it as a punishment or enjoyed the new place for his old habit.
In a tender age when sexual assaults take place, children used to have them as nightmares. Cases of sexual abuses include staring, touching, passing filthy remarks, showing obscene photos and many such things which are not pleasing to girls and they feel humiliated.
The school curriculum does not provide bookish knowledge only but the sports, art, school trips and cultural program also which provide opportunity to come closer with each other. If the children are called after school hours for extra classes or for rehearsal, they should be kept under keen eye and supervision by the authority.
At the age group between thirteen to twenty, due to hormonal changes, attraction is bound to come between opposite sex. It may lead in to sexual indulgence. That is why NCERT has stressed on keeping councilor along with holding seminars time to time to discuss on these issues. When someone is sexually harassed in school, it can undermine their sense of personal dignity and safety, disrupt their education and interfere with their ability to reach their full potential in life. It leads to increase in dropouts from schools. A survey on the cases of dropouts brought that at the age of eighteen one child in every ten passes through sexual assaults. Twenty percent of victims are in the age group of eight year or below it. Fifty percent of the victims have thought to commit suicide after the rape or abuses and twenty percent even tried this fatal act.
It should be noted that assaults take place not only with girls rather with boys also and they possess the tendency to skip or bunking classes, or sitting in one corner of the class without any interest. Psychologists find anxiety, depression, loss of appetite, inability to concentrate, fear, depression etc. as the symptoms which reveal that something wrong has taken place .
The main causes of sexual harassments at the school level may include asking for a favor in order to get good marks or some special benefits which may not be lawfully correct. In this process, sometimes students get involved voluntarily and it may not be the case with only teacher and the girl rather a peon may also get involved or even the big shot of the institution. The culprit may ask for dates and may take for outing, demanding hugs and unwanted touching or use rude and insulting language. In the age of internet, posting pornography or other sexual photos have become quite common. Gender based harassment is often used as a form of bullying the girl student. Boys may use sexual information to gain control and power over the girl.
In order to stop drop outs due to sexual abuse, Education Department of each state has a legal duty to take steps to prevent and respond to sexual harassment. They must make sure that they keep poison free environments that respect human rights. When deciding if an education provider has met its duty to respond to a human rights claim, tribunals are likely to think about how quickly the enquiry body has responded to the complaint and that the resources made available to deal with the complaint are sufficient or not. The lacunae lying here is that cases of juvenile are not seriously taken. We are still living in a conservative society where guardians are scared of ill fame so even if they know the culprit they don’t raise voice . Recently a very serious incident came in news when a fourteen year old girl of a residential school was found pregnant .The investigation found the hostel warden as the main culprit who used to run a sex racket. Therefore, we cannot say it is only male who exploits girls. Every day we come across such news where girls are being ill-treated. such lunatic males are often sick people. A tuition master of a seven years old child always used to ask her what is there under her skirt, when the same question was asked by the girl to the mother, she became aware that there is something wrong. Councilors must explain how to distinguish between good touch and bad touch .There is provision of punishment for the culprit teacher or he may be suspended too.
We all as responsible citizens of the country should help prevent sexual and gender based harassments. We ought to teach children in the family that they should not tolerate any touching or staring or any such behavior which are unpleasant to them .Any homophobic bullying will not be tolerated. They should be taken in faith that the matter will be a confidential one if they have lodged a complaint against sexual harassment. If the problem is sorted out and the girl take readmission, they should not be treated differently rather as a normal child. The government must have enough resources, training and tools to spot sexually harassed behavior. Another big issue lying here is that girls are instructed to hide such cases, as it may stand hurdle in the way of their marriage, or it may affect the reputation of her whole family in the society they are living in. Most often it leads to blackmailing also which causes sad end of life.
We are yet not a part of an open society. We are known for our moral values. Though changes are inevitable yet we should help keeping the shrine of knowledge free from all sorts of shortcomings especially stigma arisen out of breaking the pious relation between guru and shishya. If we are bound to give a civilized society, we have to provide sex education right from the primary level and a full-fledged support from the girl as well as her parents to the system dealing with sexual cases.
