There has been an increase in recent times when school children make snap decisions after the results are out, fearing that their parents will scream at their results. Two children from the city went missing from their homes last week just after the results of school exams including SSLC were announced. Although these two children were found safe and sound due to the efforts of social workers, there is a need to seriously consider the mentality of school children to run away from home or take extreme decisions.
In this context, the opinion of Santosh Darekar, the chief social activist of Facebook Friends Circle, a charitable organization that played an important role in tracing the missing children last week, was sought. He said that the incidence of school children going missing from home or taking any other urgent decision is gradually increasing. Government should appoint a team of doctors to understand the mentality of Belgaum missing and rediscovered children. I think every missing child needs counselling. Once these children are found, they should be kept in a child welfare home for at least 11 to 21 days. Which will give them a good lesson and make them think seriously about life.
A child goes missing and returns home on his own, or someone finds him and hands him over to his parent, and the parents don’t yell or explain to the child to avoid further headaches. As a result, assuming that their parents will behave in the same way, these children become more aggressive in the future and repeat the previous behavior with greater intensity. So what happens to the school’s reputation when one child out of a thousand runs away and goes missing, believing that a strict policy should be implemented for the welfare of the children, taking their parents into confidence? It should be considered. Because even though the incident has nothing to do with that school, the whole world knows the name of that school and a kind of negative message spreads about the school concerned. In such a situation, the teaching class and other students of that school also have to face many questions from the people, said Darekar.
Narrating his experience, he said that last week, I and my colleagues took our vehicles and searched all over the city to find the two children who had gone missing from home. For this, we had to spend about one and a half to two thousand rupees on vehicle fuel. But regardless of the cost, we did our work while maintaining the social commitment. The children were found. But what we got in return was that the parents of a boy didn’t even think to thank those who searched for their son as humanity. He called his son on the phone and told him not to stay there with anyone and come home. So I think the following are the things we can do to change the mentality of children who go missing from home and their parents. After the missing school boy or girl is recovered safely, the police should first rush the child to BIM’s Hospital for counseling and medical examination before handing over the child to the parents. They should be handed over to their parents only after the psychiatrists at that place ensure that the boy or girl is mentally fit.
Because the sight of the police naturally creates fear in the concerned child and his parents. For that, it is necessary to form a counseling committee with the coordination of police, doctors and parents. Santosh Darekar also expressed the belief that parents will be able to talk freely about their child, which will make it easier to counsel the child and improve the future of the concerned children and brighten their future.
