“It was a disaster waiting to happen,” said Dr Paul Russell, professor of Child Psychiatry attached to the Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore, referring to the recent incident in Chennai in which school teacher Uma Maheswari was stabbed to death by her student on the school premises. “It is just the tip of the iceberg; urgent measures need to be taken to ensure the mental well-being of children,” he warned. Quoting studies in India, he said around 25 per cent of school children suffer from mental health issues.Russell, who has practiced child psychiatry at CMC since 1991, is presently authoring two books on mental health issues among children and adolescents. He noted that early intervention can save children from turning violent and unstable, and in turn, becoming a burden to families and society. “There is a huge need for resources, infrastructure and manpower to tackle the situation, as the ratio of expert help available in the country is only 0.03 for a population of one lakh individuals as against the ideal 2 per 60,000 recommended by WHO,” said Russell. He added that there were only 15 qualified specialists in child psychiatry in the whole country. While four of these specialists practice at CMC, the others work at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurological Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, Zion Hospitals in Mumbai and Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Chandigarh.Studies indicate that a majority of children develop psychological problems due to family circumstances, the educational system and the school environment, which are currently in volatile states. This causes children to suffer from problems of psychosis, mood swings, anxiety disorders, autism, intellectual disability and other development and emotional disorders. However, it is important to identify children with such issues early. Parents, fearing social stigma, complicate the situation by hesitating to seek help for their children. “This, coupled with the lack of government attention on the issue cause bottlenecks,” admits Russell. “Since over 40 per cent of the country’s population is below the age of 19, managing the mental health needs of such a huge population is going to be a huge task,” he warned. While one way is to produce more experts which is time consuming and expensive, an alternative is to train teachers who can play a vital role in identifying disorders among children.Instead of using corporal punishment, teachers, who sometimes spend more time with children than parents, need to learn positive behavioural correction techniques to handle problem-children.
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