“Magic hai to mumkin hai”-Really

“Magic hai to mumkin hai”-By Dr Swaroop Rawal

The recent spate of suicide by children in Mumbai has got everyone worried. Mumbai has recorded 8 in the past week, mainly in the under-20 age group. Psychiatrics suggest that children as young as 5-6 test as clinically depressed. That is really distressing. A survey done in 1999-2000 by an Indo-USA team interviewed 2,273 college students in Mumbai and found that nearly 24 % suffered from various degrees of depression.
Mental heath professionals suggest that – “ Nip depression in the bud ”. Below are some points put forward to protect children from suicide. They are

Individual factors

·         High emotional intelligence

·         Good Problem-solving and coping skills

·         High Self-esteem

·         High personal control

Family Factors

·         Positive family relationships

·         Good parent supervision

·         High level of family cohesion and support

·         Strong parental disapproval of antisocial behavior.

Community Factors

·         Positive connections in school

·         Good presence of supportive peers

·         Good school attendance

·         Frequent  extra-curricular activities

·         Strong involvement in faith community

·         Availability of counselors in schools

·         Safe neighborhood.

  Source- Children’s Mental Health Research Quarterly (Children’s Health Policy Centre, Simon Fraser University 

All of us who are involved in the – ‘Making-magic in Gujarat’ project which deals with ‘Enhancing Life-Skills in Children using Drama’ will observe that there are so many points that are common between our project and the points raised above.

I believe the most important features that contribute in enhancing the mental health capacity are the individual factors that are high emotional intelligence, good problem-solving and coping skills, high self-esteem, high personal control. All these are inculcate in our programme. They are :

·         Emotional competence :

o      Emotional understanding

o      Emotional perception

o      Emotional facilitation of thought.

o      Emotional management

·         Awareness of self :

o      in areas of self-expression, self-acceptance and acceptance of others.

o      Awareness of his/her worth, which encourages them to develop a strong sense of themselves as capable persons and that their ideas are valuable. Thus leading to a gain in self-esteem and self-confidence.

·         Ability to empathise with others.

·         Creativity and creative thinking.

·         Communication skills.

Then the school environment and support come next. School is actually classified with community but I have separated school as a separate category because if children get even a touch of help from school and importantly their school teachers their mental health can be resuscitated. Moreover, usually school and what we call education in today’s India is the cause of stress in our children’s lives. This category has positive connections in school, good presence of supportive peers, good school attendance, frequent extra-curricular activities, and availability of counselors in schools. Yet again there are commonalties – through this program the teacher makes learning an enjoyable experience for their pupils. Thus not only enhance motivation to learn but additionally enhancing the children’s self-esteem.

When children enjoy whatever they are doing, they are going through what Csikszentmihalyi (1990) calls a ‘flow experience’. A flow experience is an experiential state that distinguishes an enjoyable moment from the rest of life. Csikszentmihalyi (1990) suggests that the feeling is like being carried away by a current, like being in a flow. A teacher who understands the conditions that make children want to learn is in a position to turn classroom activities into flow experiences. Through this programme children learn to work together in a group and this in turn improves their relationship with each other and their teacher’s.

Below is a table which suggests the change brought about by enhancing life-skills for approximately 2 years.

Expected Outcomes with reference to Time Line

	Year 1(level 1)	Year 2 (level 2)
Understanding and Coping with        emotions	To understand that there is a range of emotions and the expressions of different emotions To become aware different people may experience different emotions in response to the same situation	Understanding how they affect the way we behave. To better understand how others’ words and action can influence our emotions and how ours affect others
Self -awareness	Learning about me as a special person	Self control
Communication	Basic verbal and non-verbal communication skills	Assertive communication in the face of peer pressure
Empathy	Understanding how people are alike and how we differ. Learning to appreciate the differences between people (also falls in self awareness skills)	Avoiding prejudices and discrimination of people who differ (also falls in self awareness skills)
Creative Thinking	Developing the capacity to think creatively	Generating new ideas about things that are taken for granted
	Year 1(level 1)	Year 2 (level 2)
Interpersonal relationship skills	Learning to value relationships with friends and family	Forming relationships and surviving the loss of friendships
Decision making	Learning basic steps of decision-making
Coping with stress	Identifying the sources of stress	Methods of coping in stressful situations
Problem solving	Learning basic steps of problem solving
Critical thinking	Learning basic steps of critical thinking

 

Importantly, I believe that an agenda in augmenting the mental heath in children should be concerned not only with the prevention of emotional and psychosocial problems but should also be focussed at management and enhancing pro-social behaviour. That is exactly what our programme is doing.