The hacking of a girl student on the campus was horrific and symptomatic of our problems. There are no arguments that we (barring few pockets in the country) are a patriarchal society with emphasis on boys. Boys are brought up with the belief that everything they ask for is theirs. So if they like a girl, she has to reciprocate. It is constant theme of our movies. Ranjanhaa is a classical example of this kind of obsession.
On the other hand, the girls are constantly given the message that their worth is only as a daughter, wife, and mother. So girls end up with low self-esteem and many times get into relationships that are not worth it. When trouble does rear its head, they do not know how to deal with it.
But beyond it, in this age of instant gratification, children are ill-equipped to deal with rejections, with defeats, with the concept that things might not go there way. And both these students were undergraduates and the kind of the freedom they got was something they would have never experienced and had no clue how to deal with it.
We are really need to incorporate life skill development as part of the curriculum. I think the FYUP in DU is now going to start life skill development as a core course for their students. We need it at JNU too. I remember few years back attending a life skill development workshop at Prayas, an NGO in Delhi that works with girls at risk. The program was fantastic as the resource persons dealt with issues of self-esteem, relationships, how to deal with stalking/obsessions, and whom to approach in case of problems. We need courses like this.
On the other hand, the girls are constantly given the message that their worth is only as a daughter, wife, and mother. So girls end up with low self-esteem and many times get into relationships that are not worth it. When trouble does rear its head, they do not know how to deal with it.
But beyond it, in this age of instant gratification, children are ill-equipped to deal with rejections, with defeats, with the concept that things might not go there way. And both these students were undergraduates and the kind of the freedom they got was something they would have never experienced and had no clue how to deal with it.
We are really need to incorporate life skill development as part of the curriculum. I think the FYUP in DU is now going to start life skill development as a core course for their students. We need it at JNU too. I remember few years back attending a life skill development workshop at Prayas, an NGO in Delhi that works with girls at risk. The program was fantastic as the resource persons dealt with issues of self-esteem, relationships, how to deal with stalking/obsessions, and whom to approach in case of problems. We need courses like this.
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