Children's neglect at home affects grades, says Psychotherapist Kavita Agarwal

Bengaluru: Educationists and counsellors have realised how a child’s levels in academic performance has taken a dip when opportunities provided for them within their families to interact directly with parents has decreased over time.

Elaborating on the ‘disturbing’ trend, psychotherapist Kavita Agarwal said that emotional negligence leads to a kind of starvation among children thereby impacting their academic performance.

“Such situations lead to the children going off-track with zero guidance resulting in them finding methods such as drinking, smoking and indulging in drug-related activities to fill the vacuum, which turns fatal,” she said.

With instances of emotional breakdowns being a regular sight at schools, heads of institutions are also finding ways to bridge the gap, creating awareness among parents on the seriousness of the issue being a prime solution.

According to Article 18 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Children, each parent is expected to provide two hours of time on a daily basis to listen to their child encouraging them to open up and share the day’s happenings with the adults at home.

“Instead, unrealistic expectations, withdrawal of affection and being the object of anger or disrespect from parent on account of poor performance is what children go through in the current fast moving world,” points out Dr Bindu Hari, Director of TISB, NAFL and NPS Group of Schools. She added that the absence of this has even led to cases of cyber bullying taking a toll in their mental well-being and personal security in social media spaces.

Nagasimha G. Rao, Director of Child Rights Trust (CRT), an NGO which aims to protect and promote inherent and individual rights of children said the number of cases they attend usually see a 60% hike from January till April every year. With acute exam fear and depression making a spike during this time of the year, children being neglected of time spent with parents at home add to the mental instability among them.

“It is high time parents realise that time defines love for children. Rather than toiling out the entire life to build up materialistic assets for them, making each child an asset should be given importance,” he advises, adding that ample awareness should be created among parents to make them realise they refrain their children of basic rights.