HOW SAFE ARE SCHOOLS FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS? A STUDY ON PREVALENCE OF VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS OF INDIA

A couple of recent high profile cases of violence in schools which included murder of a student by senior and shooting of principal by a student shocked the country. Many other such cases of physical/sexual assault of students by peer or by teachers also caught public attention during past couple of years. But minor incidences of violence which are of regular occurrence in schools have been rarely reported and keep on disturbing the schools. Some of these minor cases turn into severe ones as evidenced in many news and research reports. The information on the rate and scope of different types of school violence is thus essential for creating awareness and developing effective interventions to deal with school violence. An empirical research was conducted to measure the rate of various kinds of violence in schools. Data was collected from 3234 students of 124 schools in rural and urban areas of one state i.e. Punjab and UT Chandigarh of India. Findings indicated that psychological, emotional, physical and sexual violence were widely spread in the schools. Two third of sampled students were frequently victimized by their peers. Besides, nine students out of ten were victimized by teachers (with 56% reported to be frequent victims). Incidents of violence against teachers were also not uncommon.