Abating Harassment

School education is crucial for the personal and academic growth of adolescents. Educational institutions provide an appropriate environment for their socialisation and the assimilation of cultural values and norms. This schooling serves as the fundamental basis for an individual's emotional and intellectual development, determining their future employment prospects and integration in the community. If these students suffer abuse and sexual harassment within the learning environment, their emotional health will be harmed, and their academic progress will be hindered. Several studies have shown that around 80 per cent of girls endure some form of sexual abuse in their school years. There has been a tendency among the girls not to report harassment to parents for fear of further ostracisation in society. As a result, such crimes are normalised and perpetrators are allowed to get off scot-free. 

Sexual harassment occurs in different forms, ranging from verbal abuse to physical violence. Vulgar remarks, sexual rumours, inappropriate gestures and touching, sexual assault and attempted rape. Schools are considered temples of learning but the schoolgirls face such abuses there. The more distressing fact is that it is school teachers/staff as well as classmates who harass the girls. The mental condition of victims becomes worse as they do not talk about the harassment with parents, teachers and police due to a lack of trust. This gives the alleged offenders a field day. A news report, carried by this daily on Sunday, highlights various types of sexual harassment and the emotional trauma of the victims. 

In an accident that took place in Jhapa, a math teacher touched sensitive parts of a girl in grade six. After months of indecent conduct, a rumour that the girl and the teacher have a love affairs, which badly affect the mental health of the teenager. She left the school and rolled into another one. Sometimes, the girls are coerced into accepting love from unwanted boys. It gets terrible when the girls are accosted with weapons. The adolescent students are sometimes swayed by immature love that ends up in marriages unacceptable to the families of both boys and girls. Such cases not only become a pain in the neck of parents, but the personal, educational and social life of the girls is also destroyed. 

These cases show that the problem of bullying and harassment of girls is just the tip of the iceberg. In order to deal with this problem, the schools have to develop anti-harassment policies and mechanisms. The confidential reporting processes and awareness about them are equally important. Psychiatrists whom this daily quoted suggest exploring the causes of the situation from the victims' perspective. The initiatives to solve these social problems reactively and immediately may not be as effective and pragmatic as the victims undergo long-term impacts of the offences. The parents and teacher should support the victims by respecting their privacy. This will discourage the culture of blaming the victims.

Similarly, Discipline In-Charges (DIs) should be more responsible. This is because of their negative role, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has instructed all schools under its jurisdiction to stop appointing the DIs. In a move to lessen the trauma of the victims, the local governments introduced a provision that each school has at least one counselor or nurse. Five years ago, the KMC recruited counsellors and nurses to offer counselling to school students. This measure has a positive impact on the academic and personality development of the youth. The parents, schools and local governments should work in tandem to end the verbal and physical violence against the tender souls.