Manish Kumar, OP
Bhubaneswar: Even as the recent incident of ‘Bois Locker Room’ involving some students of a Delhi school has stirred a hornets’ nest, some city-based psychiatrists blamed it on widespread gender stereotyping and rise of a wrong culture among the schoolchildren.
Several psychiatrists and psychologists in the city claimed that better communication between the children and teachers as well as the parents can help break the gender stereotypes and elevate the children to a better place to take right decisions.
Speaking to Orissa POST, Dr Amrit Pattojoshi, a city-based psychiatrist, said, “Such events exhibit dominance, power and toxic masculinity. It shows the misogynistic side of the society. It shows loss of moral values in the society. Teachers and parents are responsible for the different standards for males and female.”
He also said that low self-esteem of kids and dominance of people with negative and aggressive attitude make neutral children fall prey to such groups. He said, “If women are objectified and people focus more on their anatomy rather than their personality then it is the fault of the society at large and a 13-year-old boy could not be blamed for this.”
“Many people become submissive and go with the masses and become victims of such things due to peer pressure and low self-esteem. A few people set the agenda. Many kids who are against such thoughts when in crowd tend to lose their thought of protesting and become part of the system,” he added.
Others emphasised the role of parents and teachers for better upbringing of kids.
Dr Suvendu Mishra, another psychiatrist from the city, said, “Teachers play an important role in teaching gender equality and also practice the same practically by not discriminating between different genders. Sex education can play a crucial role in timely informing the kids with right information on the important phase of their life.”
Mishra also said that instead of depriving kids of internet, monitoring of their online activities will help ensure safe and better use of the internet.