Even though India is a country with rich cultural heritage and strong moral values, it is being observed that human values in our society are declining day-by-day. The decline in moral values is reflected by the increasing crime & corruption in current time. This may possibly be due to, the excessive influence of electronic media, internet & mobile phones, increasing practice of nuclear family system(comprising of no elders), lack of genuine role models(except for a handful) and rapidly growing urbanization. The fast and contingent life-style accepted by the individuals to fulfill their greed (considering that as need has also aggravated the decline.
One of the approaches to address this problem is to focus on the children who are the most vulnerable to negative values. We children are going to become responsible citizens of future-India. So, the thought of inculcating distinct human values in us and developing our ethical muscles led to the emergence of the Integrity Club in Kendriya Vidyalayas. The Integrity Club is designed as a ‘community group’ for cultivating the human values in school children (especially children in the age group of 11-14). With the Integrity Club setup in the Vidyalayas, the children are learning distinct human values through various activities and games involuntarily, so that they incorporate these values inherently and manifest them through ethical conduct and behavior automatically wherever they live.
Earlier one had enough time to spend with colleagues and family that enabled them to exchange their thoughts and learn values from each other. In joint families, children were brought up with love and affection and were taught distinct human values in day-to-day life. The opportunities to learn these values were very high with the practice of continuous teaching and preaching. For instance, the children got to listen to moral-based stories everyday during bed-time. They were