Tharuni has been working on this issue of Child Sexual Abuse through Balika Sanghas. The members of Balika Sanghas reported cases of child sexual abuse and swift action was taken in those cases. Tharuni ran a special Safe Childhood Project in Minority schools ion Hyderabad city in collaboration with British Deputy Commission, Hyderabad.
Tharuni got an opportunity to conceptualize Bharosa integrated support centres for child sexual Abuse victims in the year 2015. First centre was set up in Hyderabad in 2016 and with its success now there are 29 centres running in the state of Telangana. Tharuni is the Technical Partner to Telangana Police in this initiative. (Read more – Bharosa Support Centres)
Tharuni felt the need for having a Rehabilitation & Skill Centre for child sexual abuse victims and started “Tharuni Swalambana Rehabilitation & Skill Centre” in Hyderabad in the year 2024. (Read more – Tharuni Swalambana)
Safe Childhood Project:
Child sexual abuse is a rampant issue crosswise over India affecting children, however it is broadly implicit of, misunderstood and inadequately addressed. The cases under Prevention of Sexual Offenses against Children (POCSO) are alarmingly on the rise in Hyderabad City. Children are being lured using Social Media & Internet to exploit sexually and eventually leading to Trafficking.
Tharuni in collaboration with British Deputy High Commission took up a project to sensitize children, teachers, parents, police and prosecution officials through a series of training and capacity building workshops.
High School children were drawn from different schools in the city in thousands to obtain maximum reach for the sensitization workshop. Workshop addressed issues like child protection, prevention of child sexual abuse, online child sexual abuse, internet safety, elopements & trafficking, child related laws like POCSO, Juvenile Justice Act, Abduction & Nirbhaya Act, child support systems & life skills for children. A comprehensive tool kit comprising of a training module, booklets, videos & posters relating to these themes were developed by experienced resource persons from Tharuni.
The participant schools were encouraged to adopt the module as part of their curriculum so that sensitisation classes can be conducted as an ongoing part of their activities.
Owing to the steady increase in the number of cases, the project organized workshops by specialists to train police & officers to exercise sensitivity and improve the legal procedures in such cases.
Public outreach was done with a walkathon culminating in a meeting to raise public awareness with the participation of all the students, stakeholders and supporting organisations.
The project resulted in increased awareness among children as well as their parents in order to prevent sexual exploitation and trafficking, and built the capacities of the personnel from law enforcing agencies in handling child abuse cases deftly with sensitivity for quick redressal and rehabilitation. The pocket books (Picture shown above) were a big hit among the students.
Impact: The modules developed in this project were adapted by Telangana Police and Juvenile Welfare Departments and were widely distributed among all in the state.