Take On Silent Bullying On Campus & Beyond, Experts Urge Schools, Parents
Times of India | 3 September 2026
Kolkata: Kolkata: Sounding an alarm over silent bullying, social alienation, and increasing distress among students, Kolkata’s top school heads on Tuesday warned that schools and parents must overhaul campus vigilance.
They cautioned that unaddressed emotional trauma was pushing students toward self-harm.
The issue took centre stage at ‘Safe Schools, Stronger Minds’, an anti-bullying conclave organised by mental wellness centre Annantaa and the Early Childhood Association (ECA) at Sector V.
Heads of leading institutions, including La Martiniere for Girls, Birla High School-Mukundapur, The Newtown School, SPK Jain Futuristic Academy, and BD Memorial Junior attended the event.
An NCERT West Bengal assessment had revealed that 19% of students feel unsafe at school, 30% reported peer teasing, and 23% faced routine group exclusion.
Another study across two Kolkata higher-secondary schools found 10.5% of social media users experienced cyberbullying and nearly 73% had no knowledge of an appropriate response. Madhuri Sarda, psychologist and founder of Annantaa, said “Children often lack the vocabulary to say they are being bullied.” Educators underscored that the relentless chase for marks has eroded basic empathy.
“Suicides and extreme distress are the end result of issues left unaddressed,” said Jessica Gomes Surana, principal of Birla High School-Mukundapur.
Satabdi Bhattacharjee, the principal of The Newtown School, said “Parents go into denial because a child, who is aggressive in class might be obedient at home.”
Heads also flagged the toxic spillover of overnight screen access and social snobbery.
“Social media has created a crisis,” said Rupkatha Sarkar, principal of La Martiniere for Girls.
A sudden change in behaviour should never be ignored, said psychologist Soumya Mukherjee. Jayeeta Ganguly, principal of SPK Jain Futuristic Academy, noted that her school dedicates two out of five days strictly to mental wellness. Suman Sood, director and principal of BD Memorial Junior School and an ECA national core committee member said both the victim and the aggressor require restorative guidance rather than punitive blame, calling on schools across Kolkata to embed empathy directly into daily curriculum routines.