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Understand the Law Against Anti-Bullying

Bullying is one of the common problems that begin at an early age and it will also continue until adulthood. Currently, most of the child is being bullied so it is really important to be aware of the laws to curb bullying in India. Nowadays, bullying has become a major issue in the school as well as college. Normally bullying has gone beyond just fun but many incidents will result in victims committing suicide. Due to this, the Government of India developed certain laws to combat this issue.

Does India have any law against bullying?

Every state has a sort of law based on bullying. In general, Anti-bullying laws also vary based on specific behaviours. The common behaviours also include

• intimidation,
• teasing,
• threats,
• theft,
• stalking,
• physical violence,
• harassment. 

If your child is being bullied, you need to know the law about anti-bullying. Generally, Laws can also differ from state to state so you need to understand the state’s anti-bullying law.

What is Cyber Bullying and what does it include?

Bullying is the common issues which can hurt anyone. People now use advanced technologies to bully someone through their actions.  In recent days Cyberbullying is also done by using technology such as social media, internet, cell phones, email, etc. Normally it generally occurs among young people.  When an adult is involved in bullying then it may be considered as cyber harassment.

Cyberbullying may include:

• Making negative comments
• Blackmailing
• Stalking
• Posting unacceptable statements online
• Threats of violence
• Sending sexually explicit photos
• Secretly-recorded photos or actions

Cyberbullying is against the law because it has horrible outcomes. Most importantly this will seriously hurt others. In most conditions, this will lead to crimes, murders, deaths to innocents. However, Anti-bullying laws address and prevent bullying, each state law is different.

How can you report about Bullying?

• States laws require that school officials need to report bullying and they also provide a procedure for officials, students as well as parents to report bullying. Every state prohibits bullying based on gender identity as well as sexual oriented.
• Still, there is no private right of action but recognize common-law to hold school districts for allowing bullying to occur.  Most importantly, bullying based on sex, plus religion, disability also gives a claim under Section 1983.
• Bullying is considered as aggressive behavior. Those involved in bullying occurs mostly in schools as well as workplaces this will lead to emotional health issues as well as most of them also suffer from low self-esteem.

Bullying Activities in School & Colleges:

 Based on the survey, more than fifty percentages of children were bullied commonly in their school.  Bullying is occurring in the form of physical interactions^[1], teasing and calling names, in colleges in the form of ragging.

Workplace Bullying:

Workplace bullying involves negative behaviour which also comprises of harm characterized by persistence, aggression, intimidation, hostility, etc. This kind of bullying involves intimidating a person, yelling, mocking, name-calling, etc. obviously this will lead to stress-related health issues such as depression, hypertension, anxiety, immune disorders, etc. Normally bullying behavior will be ca1tagories in two different forms that are

• Task-related bullying:  It is also common in the workplace and this team also involves giving unmanageable deadlines, excessive work or no tasks, etc.
• Person-related bullying: It is one of the common terms this involves spreading gossip, making insulting remarks, persistent criticism, teasing, etc.

Still, bullying at the workplace is also overlooked by India’s lawmakers. Every state legal system tries to negate bullying. In some cases, the complete reason for bullying is not being recognized and the situation also becomes cruel this will lead to depression.

Facts of Cyber bullying

 The statistics of cyber bullying states that bullying in schools occurs is always increasing and kids suffering a lot due to bullying. To understand the anti-bullying laws it is important to know about the exact facts of cyber bullying:

• More than seventy percentages of cyber bullying activities can happen through social media
• More than eighty percentages of crimes can occur due to the increasing use of mobile phones. It is a popular medium for cyber bullying.
• In general, 1 in 4 kids have been bullied at school in different ways. More than forty percentages of kids have fallen to cyber bullying;
• Most of them suffered from online bullying because it is easy as compared to traditional bullying
• Girls are highly affected by cyber bullying
• Victims of cyber bullying lead to suicide

Cyber bullying is cyber harassment and it is an offense which is also done by the adolescent.  To get free from complications it is important to have a proper understanding of cyber bullying laws because it is always important to know about the meaning of bullying. Bullying inflicting physical pain also comes under harassment. Even there is no specific legislation for cyber bullying laws.

Effective Anti-Bullying Laws And Practices

First of all, it is important to understand anti-bullying strategies. Most of the schools develop bullying prevention laws and policy this allows students to feel physically as well as emotionally secure. In general, many states also have criminal and civil remedies to overcome these kind of issues. The extreme case of cyber bullying would fall under criminal harassment even it could pursue civil action.

How To Avoid Cyber Bullying:

• Block The Bully:

If you are in Facebook chat, or any other form of instant messaging you just block the bullies which means you cannot receive messages or any information from that person. Normally, blocking sends a louder message.

• Identify The Cause:

 Normally most of the bullies start out as a friend this will lead to having a reasonable discussion with the person so it is better for asking him or her to stop.

If you don’t understand or know who the bully is, you need to take stronger action.

• Get Evidence:

 You must save the evidence when the bully sends you hurtful chats or emails because these are the proof for getting the bully in trouble. Also, make sure all the evidence is on hand.

• Approach Law Enforcement:

In most cases cyber bullying is also classified as a crime, is the cyberbullying involves any of the below elements, you must call the local police.

• Stalking as well as the use of your intimidation
• Threats of violence
• Sexually explicit photos
• Secretly-recorded photos etc

Normally bullying is done by hierarchy plays as well as seniors, it is harassment at the workplace that also leads many terrible effects on the health at the same time it will affect the performance of the employees but in India, there is no special legislation to control bullying at workplace.

To Sum Up

All the necessary actions when you experience bullying and should also be careful and conscious about who you accept as a friend on social media.  Cyber bullying is common in most states and it will cause hue and cry in the whole legal system but still, there is no special legislation to completely overcome cyber bullying in India. However, the government is taking strict actions and is trying to manage it at a large level.

Read our article:How India Inc. is Losing It’s Cyber-security War