Global Peace Campaign by School Students in India

India is home to millions of schools, which are public, private, ICSE and CBSE  International Schools, which are at the helm of managing important affairs in order to impart an internationally recognized level of education to the children in India. Such schools are trying to inculcate the habit of global awareness amongst the students, by organising and also leading global eco-environment friendly and peace-keeping campaigns that are acting as catalysts to revive the lost passion for working towards creating a better place to live, through our own small ways.

India is the third most populated country in the world and according to the Global Peace Index, which shows India to be in the top 20 violent countries in the world. With the advent of recent events taking place showing the growing rate of criminal cases in our country and especially highlighted area of Delhi, which is the Capital of India. Criminal offences are becoming frequent occurrence’s, especially against women and children, like rape, sexual abuse, road harassment, molestation, dowry deaths, female infanticide, etc. 

It is high time we stayed quiet, took the blows of our chauvinistic male dominated society and felt ashamed of anything that happened with us, considering it was our fault. It’s time we voiced our opinions about the injustice hurled, our government which is failing at every level to provide a safe and secured country should be forced to take stern action against all such incidences so that it serves as a good lesson for every human being who takes the laws and life of an innocent for granted. 

These instances call for serious actions from the schools as well as from parents. The schools should incorporate martial arts training classes for its student, to enable with them self-defence skills and other ways of keeping themselves away from danger. Use of pepper sprays, red chilli powder, sharp objects and other such equipment’s are used by girls these days while travelling alone, it serves as a means of protection from strangers. But what about small kids, who are unable to express themselves mostly and are the worst affected because of their vulnerability. In such case, parents and schools should be quick to implement rules and other forms of martial arts to teach the little one to fight back when it is necessary to do so.

Especially, schools should have counselling sessions for children to make these small kids aware of the horrible activities that they are liable to face someday in their lives. Also, counsellors can also help any traumatised child to come out of any such dreadful event that has already happened. The government of India should be strict with those schools who misbehave inhumanly to the young traumatized victims. Isolation or sympathy is the last thing that the victims of any such case want. Care should be taken to have a thorough profile check of all the employees done who are recruited newly. As most cases of child molestation and harassment comes from schools. Let us take initiatives in making our country a better place to live in, without being under constant threat or fear of extinction.

Richard Mason is a martial arts expert and trainer, taking independent classes for students in various schools. He feels that along with education, students should be empowered with physical training and self-defence programmes that could ensure them their safety.