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The government is finalising a draft policy to combat bullying and ragging at all educational institutions across the country.
Education Ministry sources said to finalise the policy, a meeting will be held at the ministry at 2:30 pm today (Wednesday) with secondary and higher education division secretary Suleman Khan in the chair.
The Education Ministry has already formulated the draft policy to prevent bullying and ragging at schools, colleges and universities across the country.
According to the draft, the policy will be implemented at all public and private schools, colleges, universities as well as madrasas and technical educational institutions.
What is bullying?
Bullying at educational institutions is a worldwide problem comprising behaviours such as teasing, taunting and threatening.
Academic Dan Olweus in his book ‘Bullying at school: What we know and what we can do’ defined bullying as ‘aggressive, intentional acts carried out by a group or an individual repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself’.
The UNESCO 2019 report ‘Behind the School Violence and Bullying’ said that children who are frequently bullied are nearly three times more likely to feel like an outsider at school and more than twice as likely to miss school. As a result, it hampers their academic performance.
Punishment for bullying
According to the draft policy, direct or indirect involvement of any teacher, officer and employee of an educational institution in bullying or ragging will be against the Government Servant (Conduct) Rules, 1979 and will be considered a punishable offence.
For such a complaint, disciplinary action may be taken against person involved under the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 2018 for the misconduct.
If any teacher, official and employee of an educational institution is involved in bullying or ragging, to whom the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1979 or the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 2018 do not apply, criminal law or applicable punitive measures may be taken under relevant laws.
Monthly Payment Order (MPO) can be canceled permanently or temporarily in case of the MPO-listed teachers and employees through issuing show-cause notice for bullying and ragging, according to the policy.
Non-MPO teachers and employees may be permanently or temporarily removed or dismissed for bullying and ragging by issuing show-cause notice. And considering the severity of the incident, criminal cases can be also filed against the persons responsible.
The policy said if a student is found to be directly or indirectly involved in bullying or ragging, according to the nature and severity of the incident, the authorities concerned will temporarily or permanently expel the student.
If any member of the governing body, managing, ad hoc or special committee is directly or indirectly involved in bullying, he/she may be removed from the membership of the body or the committee concerned may be canceled based on investigation report, it added.
As per the existing law, criminal cases can be filed against the persons responsible, considering the seriousness of the incident.
Depending on the type and seriousness of bullying, the authorities concerned will temporarily or permanently expel the offender as per their rules and refer the matter to the law enforcement agencies for action.
Types of bullying
The policy says oral bullying is that saying or writing something targeting someone that implies something bad. For example, mocking, calling bad names, using obscene words, whistling, threatening etc.
Physical bullying is that hitting, slapping, kicking, pushing, punching, spitting, tying, ordering or forcing someone to stand in a particular position or position, forcing someone’s belongings taking away or breaking, making indecent or discourteous gestures with the mouth or hands etc.
The policy also states that social bullying is making social status, spreading rumors about someone, publicly insulting someone, talking about religion, caste, tribe or caste.
It also says cyber bullying is defaming friends by writing or posting rude things about them on social media while sexual bullying is deliberately touching or attempting to touch various parts of the body offensively, and displaying suggestive signs.
Some people take off their clothes or force them to take them off, pour water or paint on their bodies while racial bullying is insulting and humiliating someone on the basis of caste, tribe, religion, profession, skin color, region etc.
Committee to prevent bullying
As per the policy, the bullying prevention committee will have to be formed at each educational institution and the committee will observe over bullying and a complaint box will have to be installed at the institution for taking action.
The committee will also arrange regular meeting and discuss the monitoring activities and submit report to the authority concerned.
The policy has also mentioned the role of the managing committee, headmaster and teachers-employees over bullying at educational institutions.
