Community Outreach in Sultanpuri, Delhi

Titas Ghosh, our Program and Outreach Officer in Delhi, has been visiting places in Delhi creating awareness about sexual harassment and child sexual abuse. She visited Sultanpuri in September and interacted with the women and community facilitating conversations on safety and sexual harassment.

When she visited the community on 12th September, there was a visible tension in the group because one of the members had to leave due to familial issues. To dissipate the tension, Titas invited the community to share stories on the favourite Hindi films or their first time watching a film in a theatre. As they began sharing stories and laughing together the mood lightened and they were all set to learn a little more about their rights. A quick revision showed that the people clearly hadn’t forgotten their learnings from the previous session.

Titas showed them a video called Komal with information on Child Sexual Abuse, safe and unsafe touch, the child helpline number and ways of starting conversations about the same with their children. The parents discussed reasons why children find it difficult to break their silence, the need for open conversations, counselling and most important to build a relationship of trust with their children and to believe them.

Titas returned to the community on 18th September for a final session creating awareness about Child Sexual Abuse from a legal aspect. She spoke about the POCSO Act of which many were not aware of. She explained the various sections in detail highlighting the age group, touch and non-touch behaviour, and mandatory reporting. The group also discussed the punishments for the offences of child sexual abuse and the methods available to children for them to report. The main takeaway was to create awareness among children and provide them with the necessary resources to know what is right and wrong, how to report and whom to report to.