Today’s guest post is by Medha Prakash, a social worker with her masters from Tata Institute of Social Sciences. She works with children with disabilities at Ummeed Child Development Centre, Mumbai and wishes to create a more inclusive environment in schools.
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In our early childhood, most adults teach their children to, “Stop crying, you’re not that weak”. Crying could be a way of the child’s way to express their feelings.
Even as adults, having/expressing feelings is not considered as “cool”. Most of us as adults just think expressing our feelings could lead to bigger issues and not talking about our feelings because as children we were taught that we are just overthinking everything” and that life is not that bad, maybe we don’t realise that for someone might just need that outlet or safe space to talk about it.
In childhood and teenage years the main target is to be included in the “group”. The way of socialisation is conforming to the group, this could be distressing for someone, who the group could see as ‘unlike them’ or as an outsider. When that group itself becomes the problem just because they don’t understand that the person is a little different from them but at the same time is a human who deserves to be treated right.
As children, at times, we don’t understand the importance of how something could affect someone for life and not expressing those emotions could lead to long term issues as well. In such a situation if the person could express their emotions to someone who could just be a support in terms of how to deal with those emotions and further expressing them.
In cases of children with visible disability (in terms of the assistive aid), this could become a problem in terms of the said group considering them ‘different and non-confirming’. Inclusion and accepting the person as they are is not something that is taught in our country at a younger age, where bullying and name calling becomes a way of the dominant group expressing this upon the person “different than them”. The child being bullied doesn’t usually know about it or know exactly how to express it to and adult.
An example from the writer’s life sheds light on the profound impact that bullying and a lack of inclusion can have on a child with a disability. For much of their life, they carried the belief that something was inherently wrong with them. This mindset, coupled with the name-calling and bullying they endured, led them to accept mistreatment as a norm rather than seeking support. The inability to reach out or talk about these experiences made it even more challenging to process the emotional toll.
Reflecting on this experience, the writer suggests two ways the situation could have been handled differently. First, if teachers had been made aware of the bullying, they could have intervened and created a safer environment for the writer to express their emotions. Providing a space where children feel supported to talk about their feelings is crucial in addressing such issues.
Second, the school could have taken a more sensitive and inclusive approach to supporting children with disabilities. By fostering an environment of empathy and understanding, schools can help prevent bullying and ensure that all children feel valued and respected. These proactive measures could have made a significant difference in how the writer navigated and overcame these challenges.
Further after growing up the writer started to read and research about this and realised that there are some of the ways in which this could be dealt with like the school in itself being accommodating along with having sensitization sessions with the teachers as well as the students. At that time most of these things were not known or were not given that much of importance.
If children are given the safe space they end up sharing a lot they will learn to communicate a lot about their lives at a very young age and further makes adulthood a little easier.
This post is a part of “International Day of Persons with Disability” blog hop hosted by Sakshi Varma – Tripleamommy. #IDPD2024Bloghop. Access all posts of this bloghop at https://tripleamommy.com/2024/12/02/beyond-barriers-amplifying-voices-for-inclusion-marking-idpd-2024/
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