India is considered an ‘intolerant nation’ according to a lot of research reports. A report published by the Pew Research Center in 2017 says that intolerance is rising in our country.
Based on a hike in crimes like harassment of women, mob lynching based on religion, castes, and political views; the rage of people against Bollywood movies(PK, Padmavati), etc. And the suicide rate in India is a topic for some other day.
For your reference:
If you’re a normal person who doesn’t live under a shell, then I believe that you’re aware of the incidents happening around us on a day-to-day basis.
But how is it related to our education system and mental health? let’s see…
From an early childhood, we observe people around us and the values they hold and teach us.
We are what our parents taught us at home, we learn the basic etiquettes from them, we imitate them in all ways possible.
We also learn most of our social behavior during schooling. So the foundation of our beliefs is our home and school combined.
If we are taught to be insecure about our bodies, if we are treated like dirt, if we’re always told to excel in a class that we have zero-to-no interest in, then what would we become as youngsters? Insecure and pathetic, with little-to-no self-esteem.
But later in life, we are the ones who decide what is right and wrong, we decide what we believe in and that’s where the concept of Constant Learning and Critical Thinking comes into the picture.
Learning is a great aspect of life and we need to keep learning and updating our beliefs and mindset, which we fail to do so and this causes all the chaos that we see.
We are responsible for our character building, so we should thrive to become a better version of ourselves. Nobody is going to do that for you, my dear reader.
I believe that if our minds are at peace, our actions would be too and we would be able to learn in abundance.
Nowadays, a lot of crimes reported are because of egoistic people whose mind is just messed up.
The riots happen because of the people who let their anger decide their actions.
Suicides occur mainly because of the social anxiety.
It is a big wide loop of confusion and only mental health and awareness can fix it.
If our parents and teachers care about our mental health since childhood, if they push us even a little, then a lot of us would be totally different as adults, confident, happy, and secure.
But the Indian education system hardly pays attention to a child’s mental health.
From an early age, if we are taught how to understand ourselves, if we know how to cope up with stress and anxiety and social pressure during adolescent age, we would be a lot happier at later stages in life and our country would have lesser crime rates contrary to the current situation(a small change is still a change).
There’s no doubt that physical health plays a major role in our lives, but we fail to realize the importance of mental health due to the lack of awareness.
If schools start to focus on a child’s mental health, then I can only imagine what India would be like… better than what it is now.
Imagine kids accepting themselves, enjoying diversity and making each other feel valued.
Imagine parents not bothering about average marks, not forcing careers onto their kids and grand kids.
Imagine a society where no one cares how fat or skinny you are.
Imagine a country where everyone understands the other and loves them for who they are.
At last, I can just hope that we realize this soon:
Mental health plays a bigger role in our lives than we actually think. Period.
