Step to check mental illness in schoolchildren

Kolkata: The West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights will propose the state education department to issue instructions to all the schools to create an additional column in the school dairy where a guardian has to mention the details if his/her child suffers from any mental problems.

West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights chairperson Ananya Chatterjee Chakraborti on Tuesday said that they will soon submit the proposal to the education department so that both the private and government aided schools can adopt a new system thereby leaving an extra column in the school dairy where parents can mention if the children are affected with any mental ailments.

The patients will have to mention some details as what sort of treatment a child has been undergoing and what medicines a child has been taking. It has often been found that the children suffer from some problems but the school authorities do not have any clues about the mental traits of the students.

Chatterjee Chakraborti said that in our country, the mental traits of a child are often ignored as a result these problems remain unaddressed.

A proposal would soon be submitted to the education department so that the new system can be introduced in both private and government schools. The school authorities will get to know a student's mental condition by going through the extra column in the dairy.

The school will also be able to assess if a student suffers from mental depression or any psychological problems. It was learnt that the education department will implement the proposal after going through it.

The move has been taken after Kritika Pal, a Class X student from a renowned school in the city committed suicide inside the washroom of the school on June 21.

The post mortem report confirmed that she died of suffocation and multiple cut injuries were found in her wrist. It became clear to the police after going through her suicide note that she was under some mental pressure but the school authorities were not aware about it.