Let’s
try to first recap a few points about the case so far.
·
Pradyuman
had been dropped outside his school in the morning just before start of school
hours and in a matter of 15 minutes, he was found to be lying in a pool of
blood, dead.
·
The
police arrested a bus conductor as the murder accused even before the passage
of a whole day.
·
The
Gurugram Police Commissioner boasted that the case will be cracked in 1-2 days.
·
The
arrested bus conductor first confessed to committing the murder then retracted
the statement, saying the police coerced it out of him.
·
The
investigation was handed over to the CBI which after several weeks detained a
school student as accused.
·
The
CBI has asked for the 16-year-old boy's custody in order to find out if any
other people were involved in the crime, and to also unearth the sequence of
events leading to Pradyuman Thakur's death, and to "unearth the
conspiracy, if any".
·
The
CBI has asserted that after inspecting the crime scene, the CCTV footage,
movement of students near the crime scene and questioning people in the school,
it has identified and apprehended the accused.
·
The
CBI's findings in the case came as an embarassement to the state
police as the CBI said that a Class XI student who allegedly wanted a parent-teacher meeting and examinations
to be postponed had been apprehended in connection with the killing of
seven-year-old Pradyuman in Gurugram's Ryan International School.
·
As
it has often been seen, wide media coverage and public outcry put investigating
agencies under extra pressure.
·
In
many cases, failure in proper preliminary investigation, or incomplete/delayed
collection of forensic evidence lead to botched up investigations that
ultimately make it more difficult for the victim to get justice.
If
the crime was committed by the 16 year old boy
The motive of the murder was postponing the
parent teachers meeting and examination.
It may sound very trivial to most of us but it would be really important to
know what led the juvenile of 16 years to actually do the gruesome act. So let’s
assume that the juvenile committed the crime. So let’s try to understand his
mind
1. What were the changes in
the brain that must have taken place? We all know that “amygdala” a part of the brain which deals with firing emotions develops
by the age of 2 and the prefrontal (neobrain) develops by the age of 20 years
and for some it may be later. This we label it as maturity. The prefrontal lobe
works as a regulator to control emotions like anger, sadness or impulses. In
short, kids are without any regulation till the lobe develops completely. Here the
role of parents and educator comes into play. Most of the schools do not have curriculum or take active interventions in India into helping the child deal with these raging
emotions. So the primary responsibility of helping the child with socioemotional
problems lies on the shoulders of the parents. If both parents are working the
child is left at the mercy of the caretakers. This creates this dysregulation.A
study done in United States where MRI of criminals were done and it was found
that most of them had a very thin layer of prefrontal lobe with an enlarged hypertrophied
amygdala. Hence when provoke they were unable to regulate their impulsive behavior.
Hence, lack of regulation in kid lead to such catastrophe.
2. The motive was the postponement
of examinations. If it hold true, then the children today are highly stressed
by the expectations of parents as well as educators to excel in their academics.
A study by me where we measured the blood cortisol of school going kids on a normal
day without any examination. We were
shocked to see that the average levels of cortisol (207) were actually on the higher
side close to the upper limit (210).You can imagine what must be the state of
the child when they appear for their examinations. Again lack of regulation
will make the child take these drastic steps as it is evident by shootouts in
the United States.
3. The role of gaming and
gadgets have further deregulated the children.The ease of availability and
addiction of technology in today’s kids is
for everyone to see. At a very tender the age the child learns to shoot someone
in a game by a click on the mobile. Violence in cartoons like Chota Bheem are
seen by kids of the 6 and 7 years. Since the prefrontal lobe is not developed,
the difference between good and bad is not understood by them. Hence we are
seeing a rise in violence and aggressiveness among kids. Surprisingly parents
themselves want them to be addicted to television initially but later on regret.
Social media like Facebook and whatsapp have contributed to isolating a child
and interfering in the basic skills of communication. Games like Blue whale
have taken undue significance due to poor development of socioemotional skills
in the learning phase of teenagers. Typing an emoji saves the body a lot of
trouble of making facial expressions but eventually creates plutonic and shallow
relationships. You type a wrong emoji and the meaning changes.
4. Lack of effective programs
and interventions in schools focusing on socioemotional behavior and helping
children to deal with stress.
5. Time spend by parents with
students has markedly reduced. With the hectic schedules and competitions in today’s
world, parents are not giving enough quality time to their children.They themselves
are too much involved their own world, the child misses the guidance and
compassion of the parents. With a deregulated and agitated system the child is
bound to react impulsively. I am not defending the juvenile who committed the
crime but simply believe that he is not solely responsible.
What if the Juvenile has
not committed the crime?
The
marks on the child’s mind where the whole country is gunning for his life are
going to be damaging and permanent. The amygdala which is deregulated will fire
and lead to the added frustration and anger. This will have an extremely
negative impact on his mind which may lead him to become a hard core criminal or commit
suicide depending on the value system. All we can pray that the CBI at least in
this case has not goofed up in naming him as the murderer. It may end up destroying
the future of a young life.
Way forward
Parents
and educators need to take combined responsibility in developing the
socioemotional behavior of the children.Teaching them to deal with their impulsiveness.
Some
of the tips which may be useful for parents
Talk to your children .Parents need to speak to
their children without judging them and advising them. Make them your friend
and listen to their problems controlling the urge to advise them if not
necessary.
Limiting gadget times. Parents need to fix the
gadget times for both themselves and their children. By forcing them to switch
of the gadget and parents still using them might not work. Children learn from
their parent’s behavior and mimic them.
Giving positive feedback: One of the most
depressing thing for a child is to get a negative comment from the parents.
Parents are their world especially for young kids. Every negative comment creates
disinterest in their studies or activities and widens the gap of understanding
between them.
Giving them space. Every child is special
and each one has a unique quality and skill. By judging and analyzing them
solely on their marks and ignoring their other talents, we destroy their self-confidence
and make them more aggressive. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses is done
by all parents but very few have the heart to ignore their weakness and help
them work on their strengths. There would be only doctors and engineers in the
world and no painters or sportsman if academics was the yardstick to success.
For educator and school authorities: Effort should be made by
introducing programs to develop the socioemotional behavior of the kids .Active
interventions at the right age will prevent the murder of kids like Pradyuman and
spoil the future of teenager who murdered him . There are many Pradyumans and teenager
who are roaming around with an unregulated mind who need active intervention. My
vision is that socioemotional interventions like mindfulness based cognitive
therapy will be made compulsory in school curriculum which seems to the need
of the hour and save many Pradyumans and the teenage boy.
