Spreading awareness about Child Sexual Abuse in Patna

Naina Jha is the Program and Outreach Officer at Patna. She is a PR professional working with Greymatters Communications. She has worked with hospitals, advertising and PR agencies and has been working with ICWA to educate slum kids since 2005. She has also worked as a freelancer with Gender Resource Centre, Patna. She loves working for the uplifting of slum children and gender sensitisation and wishes to make this society a better place to live in. She is a budding writer, avid learner, traveller, and a happy soul. A sociology graduate who holds a masters degree in human resources, she has a few more degrees up her sleeves but most importantly she is a mother to a beatific little angel.

Creating Awareness about Child Sexual Abuse

Naina Jha conducted a workshop on ‘Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO)’ for 30 girls of Std IVth, Vth & VIth at School of Creative Learning in Patna on 5th August, 2017. She writes,

“The main aim of this workshop was to make the girls aware of safe and unsafe touch, to list their trusted adults and how they could stay safe.

To gauge their level of understanding, I asked them whether they had ever faced any abuse or if anything made them feel bad and ashamed to which many replied with a “Yes”. Many of them felt abused or harassed by their classmates. A girl said that she was stalked on her way home from school by boys of her class. The girls also spoke about incidents where boys clicked their pictures without permission, show them objectionable videos and vulgar pictures. A girl asked for a Transfer Certificate from school because a boy from her class showed her pictures of pregnant women. I found their problem grave.

So we begin with the film ‘Komal’ which explained about private body parts and the concept of safe and unsafe touch. Then I asked them a few questions based on movie which they all answered correctly. I also told them a story by Tale Weavers called ‘No, Run, Tell- My Safety Rules’ which explained safe, unsafe and confusing touch with appropriate examples. The kids were happy to hear this story.

During open house, one girl asked whether only four parts of our body were private and what should be done if someone were to touch other body parts. I explained that our entire body was personal and nobody has the right to touch them without their permission. But those four body parts are extremely private and no one could touch them there except their parents and doctor. I explained with the fact that even mothers did not touch their children in those private parts as they grow up showed how private those parts are.

Reading their feedback forms, I found all of them loved the stories and whatever they had learned. They were excited to attend similar workshops in future.”