The Child Welfare Committee, Gurugram has decided to create awareness among students on dealing with exam-related stress. This comes following the revelation that a juvenile in conflict with law had allegedly murdered a seven-year-old fellow student at Ryan International School here to postpone the scheduled exams and the parent-teacher meeting,
CWC, Chairperson, Gurugram, Shakuntala Dhull on Thursday told The Hindu that a drive was already underway to create awareness among students regarding child rights, good and bad touch and provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act following the murder on September 8. She added that now it was decided to include stress management as well.
“If the revelation by the CBI is to be believed, the juvenile must have been under tremendous pressure to take such an extreme step to postpone exams and parent-teacher meeting. He was stressed and committed the crime due to lack of proper guidance. We have now decided to hold lectures and plays on the subject of stress management among students,” she said, adding that special emphasis would be laid on the senior students.
CBSE guidelines
Ms. Dhull said 50 schools were identified for conducting classes on stress management and related issues this month and some NGOs were also involved in this. “There is a need to do a lot of work on this in Gurugram. It is a big place and lot of manpower is also required for this. We have already covered 10 schools so far,” said Ms. Dhull. She also said that as per CBSE guidelines, there should be at least two counsellors in each school for stress management and regular lectures should be conducted to help students but these norms are not adhered to in most schools.
The Chairperson said that several NGOs and individuals had contacted the committee in this regard over the last 24 hours. She said that the stressed students could also call the child helpline to discuss their problems and their identity would not be disclosed.
