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. There have been more than 138 cases registered by Hyderabad Police in the past ten months and the figures may be much higher since many go unreported.
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 will be drawn from different schools in the city in thousands to obtain maximum reach for the sensitisation workshop. Workshop will address 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 will be developed by experienced resource persons from Tharuni.
The participant schools will be 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 will organize workshops by specialists to train police & officers to exercise sensitivity and improve the legal procedures in such cases.
Public outreach will be done with a walkathon culminating in a meeting to raise public awareness with the participation of all the stakeholders and supporting organisations.
The project will result in increased awareness among children as well as their parents in order to prevent sexual exploitation and trafficking, and will capacity build personnel from law enforcing agencies in handling child abuse cases deftly with sensitivity for quick redressal and rehabilitation.