I’ve done two lots of 360Life trauma awareness training during my stay here in India. One lot has been done over a number of days with all the teachers at the school, and the other training was a morning session with church leaders from nearby communities. (NB religions are not being specifically named for safety reasons)
Very different audiences with very different needs and areas of focus, and it’s been fascinating to hear about the issues that they each are dealing with.
For the teachers, the challenges relating to trauma that they are seeing for the children fall into a few broad categories. One category is the traumas relating to home life – living in poverty, parents arguing, fighting, splitting up etc, seeing their parents and grandparents struggling with health issues.
Another category is the excessive pressure and high expectations from parents for high academic achievements, fear of failure and letting their parents down, fear of reprisals if they do fail, self-imposed high expectations, and at the other end – students who have just given up trying, in part I suspect because they know that they can’t achieve what is expected of them.
The third category relates to social media, and peer pressure – particularly for the older students. There are no phones allowed in the school, so this issue is more related to the online activities of children when they get home. However, it is impacting performance at school, through lack of homework being done, or it being done badly, as well as students coming who are tired and struggling to concentrate. I must stress that this category does not apply to the majority of students, and is certainly something particular to the older ones than the younger ones, but that it was mentioned by the teachers a few times shows that it is an issue that they are struggling with, and are at a loss to know how to address.
When I asked the teachers about wider issues relating to trauma that are faced in India, three responses that came up every time were religious discrimination, gender-based violence and caste discrimination. Caste discrimination, whilst not so obvious to an external person like myself, apparently is often still very much seen with regard to access to jobs, as well as housing, and general societal opportunities. Whilst education is seen as the way to combat this discrimination, sadly it is also acknowledged that those at the top of the caste system are also the ones who wield the political power and influence that can help or hinder bringing about any changes.
Gender based violence is predominantly linked to the arranged marriage process, and a tradition of patriarchal and misogynistic attitudes. And along with the violence, there are also the gendered expectations that are fed to the children of less progressive parents from an early age. Consequently, girls grow up thinking that their future is about getting married, and producing a family, and not about choosing a career and pursuing their dreams. I realise that these are big generalisations, and it has been really uplifting to see girls at St Josephs who don’t see their role as just producing the next generation, but have hopes and dreams for their future. But again, the fact that all of the teachers mentioned GBV as a real problem in India, shows that it is an issue that still needs a lot of work.
Religious discrimination was top of the list when chatting to the church leaders. Not surprisingly really, as they are the ones who are out on the front line and sharing the gospel in the community. In the state that I’ve been staying in, this can be pretty risky, and can lead to confrontations and attacks by members of the national religious party. In some other states it’s really risky, and church leaders and elders have found themselves in prison, or badly beaten, with churches being torched and attacked – including when services are taking place. Discrimination with regard to getting a job is also taking place, and there have been several cases of the landlord from the national religion evicting tenants who profess to any other religion.
Chatting with the church leaders about this was a very sobering and humbling conversation. Hearing about their experiences, and the stress of daily having the uncertainty of whether there will be an attack or not – it takes a big toll on the body, and on the mind. Sadly, the fear is that things are going to get worse before they get better, and this is something else that is always at the back of the minds of these church leaders.
Despite the toughness of some of the conversations, it has been a real honour to be able to have time to share with these few folks over the past week, and I pray for them as they go forwards, that they will have the courage, the wisdom and the grace to navigate the path that they are on, and bring hope into a very broken world.





























