HOOKED

With technology coming in a big way, childhood is no more imbued with the romanticised notion of innocence — a period free from responsibility and conflict and domi-nated by fantasy, play and opportunity. From a role of marginals in development,
their role is becoming institutionalised as partners in
development, says Manpreet Singh

I have had playmates, I have had companions,
In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days,
All, all are gone,...
— Charles Lamb

RAHUL, a class VI student in a convent school, doesn’t like to dribble a football with other boys. He prefers to play with machines instead — machines with those big video screens. He loves to shoot with different types of guns which appear and disappear from the screen with the touch of a button. When tired of the "games", he ‘watches’ TV alone at home, blankly staring at the screen through the thick lenses of his tiny spectacles.

He is an introvert and also obese. Nonetheless, he is very ambitious and anxious about his future. Speaking about success,power and money with a maturity expected of a person thrice his age, he mumbles with confidence: "I will become an astronaut or a fighter pilot one day."

However, his parents are worried about his ‘unchildlike’ behaviour. "He is reserved, aggressive and, sometimes, even violent. He also suffers from occasional bouts of anxiety and depression. He sulks too much and too often and doesn’t show us the respect and warmth we once gave to our parents," they complain.

Rahul represents a growing multitude of city children — innocent victims of ‘modern childhood’ — who struggle to prove their potential in all spheres of life, the burden of which crushes the small joys of a tender age. Today, childhood finds itself at the crossroads, caught in the competitive, commercialised times brought by the fast-changing technologies and demanding industrialisation. It is changing at a very fast pace, or even being lost, neglected as it is by parents and society.

If a social psychologist was asked to explain Rahul’s behaviour, he would term it as a case of ‘lost childhood’ in a competitive society where technology, along with its benefits, has dragged the child from the streets and shut him up in the four walls of a house and other institutions.

Comparing the present lot of children with that of a decade ago, Dr Savita Malhotra, Additional Professor,Psychiatry Department, PGI, says,"The rate of anxiety, depression, unexplained headaches and abdominal pains has increased among the children. Similarly, cases of suicide attempts, drug addiction, teenage pregnancy and child abuse have also gone up. At the PGI, we do get children with serious emotional problems in which stress is a contributing factor."

Tracing the influence of technology and media on a child’s behaviour and in shaping his values, Dr Malhotra explains: "Technology, particularly media (television), has made the child a passive spectator, both physically and mentally. Just notice the increasing obesity among children. Media which is largely westernised, is distorting reality for the child and promoting violence which desanitises a child towards violence in real life. Even the cartoon programmes, which are meant for entertainment, perpetuate violence. And a child’s pent-up energy, due to lack of activity, leads to impatience and aggressiveness."

Indeed, they are the ‘inheritors of a lonely childhood’. Dr Ranjay Vardhan, a sociologist, says that the children’s role has undergone a drastic change over the years, "With technology coming in a big way, childhood is no more imbued with the romanticised notion of innocence — a period free from responsibility and conflict and dominated by fantasy, play and opportunity.

From a role of marginals in development, their role is becoming institutionalised as partners in development."

Commenting on the changing social bonds, Dr Vardhan opines, "Innovative techniques for child-care like creches and boarding schools are proving to be counter-productive in ensuring the mental and emotional growth among children.

They are being deprived of affection, warmth and love which come from relationships woven around them. If they seek affection outside the family, they become vulnerable to abuse."

Psychologists feel that unfiltered and excessive media exposure and failure of parents in taking parenting as a task is causing an increase in crime by and against children. According to a National Crime Bureau report, juvenile crime among the affluent sections of society increased from 1.7 per cent in 1991 to 2.4 per cent in 1995.

Still more shockingly, a recent study, "Voices from the Silent Zone", carried out by a voluntary organisation, confirms the wide prevalence of child abuse in Indian society and its hidden nature. Of the 600 women covered under the study, 76 per cent said they were abused between the ages of 2 and 22 and 50 per cent said the abuse took place when they were 12 years and under. The abusers were mainly male members of the family, friends and servants who committed the abuse with sexual intent as they were older people holding a position trust.

This trend exposes the unhealthy social atmosphere which prevails today. Child experts affirm that the conditions faced by a child in a metropolitan city like Delhi or Bombay are no less threatening and different from that of a New York child. The blind pursuit of western lifestyles need to be checked with urgently.

"Socialising today among children is restricted to visiting fast food joints or organising dance parties, a western phenomenon, in which you don’t develop intimate relationships. A child may be in a big group and yet be lonely. Instead of following western ways blindly we should have taken pride in our Indian philosophy of life which has great merit," says Dr Malhotra.

Describing the impact of restrains imposed on a child by society, technology, family and self, Dr Vardhan says that social interaction and inter-mixing amongst children have suffered a serious setback. "The concept of caring and sharing among children is giving way to more individualised existence. Even friendships are few and full of matter-of-fact inter-action. The breaking up of the joint family system has made the child more lonely and unsocial," he adds.

Another area that needs urgent attention is education. Child welfare experts say the academic load on children is much more than their capacity to grasp. "Today, a Class X student knows more, and has to study more of biology than we studied in our MBBS course, 20 years ago. This is simply unjust," says a psychiatrist.

"Teachers, mainly school teachers, have abdicated their responsibility towards little children. They are not motivated and care little about the kind of citizens they are shaping for the country. They don’t realise the importance of their role. If the doctors can be brought under the Consumers Protection Act, why not the teachers," asks Dr Malhotra.

Child experts also feel that it’s the parents and teachers who need counselling rather than the children. A child is a responsibility and has to be brought up with care and concern, even if it means that only one parent goes to work. Part-time parenting is proving to be too costly for a child.

"I quit working when my son was born. I don’t want my child to become physically fragile and hardened at heart, just like the other kids you see around. Though we can’t provide him the same level of warmth and love that my grandparents gave me but I want to be at home when my child wins a trophy or an award at school, and runs back home to share it with us," says a young mother Geetu Malik.

The time, it seems, has come to retreat from the mega bytes of the electronic era to seasons under the sun near the mohalla’s nukkad .