Pre-Act, Don’t react, To See A Better Tomorrow For Our Children

Childhood is the most impressionable period of one’s life. Schools, society, and family are the three influential entities that help in moulding and shaping the mind of a child. So, for them to be compassionate, smart, independent and successful in life, the right ideals and ideologies need to be incorporated from the very beginning.

Schools have the most impact in a child’s life as the objective of schools is to teach and mould them into bright adults. Yes, history, geography, maths are essential subjects. But honestly, how much can you practically implement Alexander’s battle in your day to day life? Or how will calculus help you with your social interactions? Along with studies, schools need to prepare a child to face the challenges of the society too.

There are many instances where our society expects us to follow certain rules. One of the most important is to agree with the gender roles that have been the accepted norm. Most people are pressured to conform to specific behaviour.

TATA Tea Jaago Re, as a part of their initiative ‘Alaram Bajne Se Pehle Jaago Re’, urged people to join a movement to include gender sensitisation and sports as a part of the school curriculum to make the future of sports in India better and to create gender-equitable society. Through this campaign, TATA Tea Jaago Re asked people to pre-act, join the movement and urged them to sign a petition to make gender-sensitisation and sports compulsory in schools.

The petition was received extremely well by over 1.8 million people, and was presented to the Ministry of Human Resource Development on February 08, 2018. 1.8 million people took up the responsibility of being pre-activists and signed the petition to see a better tomorrow, a better India.

The petition was aimed in two directions:

1. Gender Sensitisation

We as a society have been conditioned to accept specific gender roles. Growing up, we have usually witnessed the women of the family working on household chores like cleaning, cooking, washing clothes, etc. while the men go outside to work.

Earn a living for the family. Jaago Re with its campaign influenced people to pre-act and change things before gender-biased roles get firmly entrenched in the mindsets of young children. It is better to make children grow up with a different mindset rather than replacing it later.

Hence, in the formative years, we need to teach children that men and women are equal. Men are not entitled to any privilege for their gender and crimes against women are not acceptable. To achieve an equal society, we need a wave of reforms to change the society’s perception, and this can only happen when each person is educated on gender equality.

2. Sports- Compulsory in curriculum

Sports is more than just physical activity. Yes, it is fun but more so, it helps with the development of a person’s physique, character and mental health. By sports, we don’t only mean Cricket; it can be Kabbadi, Football, Swimming, Wrestling, Archery, Ice Hockey.

Every game makes a person a better team player and also trains them to inculcate leadership skills. Sports trains children to be disciplined. It also makes them better equipped to handle pressure and failure. We criticise our sportsmen when they cannot lift the cup.

We always blame the authorities. Making sports a mandatory subject in school will change this perspective. The taboo against taking up sports as a career option needs to done away with. To challenge this taboo, schools need to take the first step. If they make sports compulsory and promote a healthy environment for different kind of games, then children will not be weak. They will be able to stand up for themselves. They will have the discipline to determine right from wrong.

Tata Tea Jaago Re’s belief, that our country can change, got an overwhelming response. 1.8 million people signed the petition. This shows that 1.8 million people of our country are ready to pre-act for a new India. They want a society which cultivates a good sporting culture which does not just involve cricket. They want a community where women are not afraid to step out on their own at day or night. We really appreciate and thank the people who took time out of their busy schedule to make their voices heard and believe in seeing a better India and a better future for the next generation kids.