Dear Reader,
I hope you are doing well. I am writing this blog post to address a critical issue that has become increasingly prevalent in our society: “the issue of bullying." As a concerned citizen, I want to raise awareness about bullying and its detrimental effects on the mental health of children. I recognize the need to add anti-bullying to the 18th United Nations goal of sustainable development.
My understanding is that we all want to build a sustainable world. One of the most fundamental requirements for this is a healthy mind and healthy body. If children of today who will become world shapers tomorrow, are continuously being bullied, they will grow up with the baggage of childhood bullying that they have faced. The act of bullying takes away the safe environment for the bully victims. This can lead to childhood trauma, depression, and scars can also haunt the child of today in her or his adulthood tomorrow. I think, if we are to build a sustainable world, Anti - Bullying must be the 18th UNO sustainable development goal.
Last year, I did an inspirational project as a part of my school curriculum, which was regarding the UN sustainable development goals, and I chose to work on goal number 11, “Sustainable cities and communities." I did in-depth research about the goal, and ever since this project, I have been more interested in becoming more sustainable. I realized at the end of my project that without a sustainable world, every other goal would eventually become a theoretical discussion. I am not saying that problems other than sustainability are not important; I am just saying that in some cases like bullying, we must act before they get worse. This is also why, along with being someone who tries to care about sustainable cities and communities,” I want to make a proposal that the UNO keeps their eye on addition of another goal to SDG, that is Anti-bullying. After being inspired by so many leaders in the world, I want to help take care of this environment and the habitat we all dwell in happily. I am inspired by my parents, positive people around me, and the situations that surround me.
Having experienced bullying myself, I understand the negative impact it can have on one's well-being. I have also realized that due to insecurity the bullies want everyone to be a sheep and follow the herd, no one wants a lion. There is a preference for anonymity and invisibility, but no one appreciates a character, however the matter of fact is that a positive character can only grow into a remarkable leader. At my school, I have witnessed both physical and online forms of bullying, which can leave a child feeling excluded and isolated. Sometimes there is organized ostracization to showcase one does not exist or one does not matter, or soul piercing negative statements being said about one’s body, outlook, personality, and background. Other times there are lies, or rumors spread about oneself, in the most toxic and depressing manner. It is very difficult to understand and believe people who were your childhood friends have turned into bullies out of, set of insecurities. While I was able to confront my bullies and resolve the issue to an extent, I am aware that not all children have the courage or resources to do so. Let me narrate some of my firsthand bullying experiences to you to give you a brief idea of both Physical and Cyber Bullying.
Physical Bullying
Bullies use gym/PHE / Sports class as a route to hurt you physically.
Bullies use staircases to push you.
Bullies jumped on my jackets with dirty shoes intentionally to abate my existence.
Bullies put water in the school bag that can damage the school provided laptop.
Cyber Bullying:
Another incident that occurred with me was a toxic mix of cyberbullying and ostracizing. A friend of mine asked me if she could share my cellphone number with her cousin, which I declined. As a result of this, I was at the receiving end of many unwanted messages, inappropriate and age irrelevant videos, and ostracization in the class. My own friend stepped over my things with dirty shoes to bully me. Words like “Chill”, “Bitch” for basic and kindest of requests are a normal response of bullies. I do not understand this culture but it does impact me negatively, and it does impact so many bully victims negatively.
Additional scenarios of cyber bullying are.
Group chats that circulate inappropriate messages and images about individuals for fun
Group chats that circulate demeaning messages about one being ill or sick or under the weather.
A student’s face being morphed over an inappropriate image and being circulated over emails and private group chats.
Creation and sharing of inappropriate and mean stickers about a person/student.
Use of marker on images to pronounce certain body parts of a student to bully the student.
The victims of bullying are largely affected by trust issues, self-doubt, depression, and in some cases, this affects the person’s behavior negatively because she/he feels excluded, without friends, and all alone. I had a close friend go through bullying, the impact of which is that there isn't a single sentence in the conversation that won’t have a swear word, which was not the victim’s previous behavior.
Whether the bullying is physical, cyber, or emotional, the impact of all of it always, is negative, personal, and mental and that is a the most fundamental problem.
Some bullies bully the kids for the experience or fun that they get out of it, some of them bully because they want to look powerful, then there are some that bully out of insecurities and the last can be thought of as a "herd", that wants to look good to bullies and they support the bullies. In an absolute sense all of them are wrong, it should not be so easy for a bully to press and bully people who don't chose aggression as their natural response. Late Shri Mahatam Gandhi said "Ahinsa Paramodharma" that means Non violence is the supreme method of life. The irony yet seems exactly opposite of that.
To this day, I am still being bullied, either for getting good grades, or being overweight and I don’t know how to respond or do anything. I hope that no one else will face this problem. Thankfully, now that I am a peer coach, I am trained to deal with people with different emotions and reactions.
Hopefully, after reading this, you will understand how people feel when they are bullied and why I need your voice to spread awareness about bullying and its harmful effects.
Additionally, I request that you advocate for the inclusion of anti - bullying as the 18th UN goals for sustainable development. So that people all around the world take action to stop bullying. I feel that this should be a UN goal so that young minds are not hurt, and scared to an extent that it would affect their mental health. Students, bright as a sun academically, can get depressed by bullying and their grades and future are impacted because they can't focus on their studies or to an extent even on the fundamentals of life.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
I have a smaller voice as compared to yours, so not a lot of people would hear me, but you have a voice with a larger impact. I request you to please be my voice in asking UNO to accept Anti - Bullying as their 18th Goal for Sustainable Development.
Link to my website in our big project last year: https://www.sustainabilitywhyandhow.com/
Link to my YouTube channel about sustainability: UCX61VpPP2UepMkuoIKOFR2g
My email address: sustainabilitywhyandhow@gmail.com
Sincerely,
Achita Kashyap
- copyright Achita Kashyap