Satyamev Jayate effect: Schools plan workshops on good touch, bad touch

 
Pune: Thanks to Bollywood actor Aamir Khan’s television show Satyamev Jayate, which has created a massive awareness about child sex abuse (CSA), city school principals have now decided to organise workshops on the subject for both parents and younger children.

Most of the school principals said that although they conduct classes on sex education for older children from Stds VIII to X, the idea of educating younger students on sexuality and health issues didn’t cross their minds.

“Yes, it is indeed important to teach younger kids who are in the most vulnerable group,” said Leena Chaudhari, principal of Symbiosis School.

“They might not even realise which ‘touch’ isn’t good and even if they do, they might not know or have the confidence to speak about it, let alone confront the person. In our school, a team of doctors and professionals teaches older kids about sex education. I am thinking of requesting them to devise special sensitised workshops for younger children too,” added Chaudhari.

“One important observation that came out of the television episode was the reaction of caregivers to a child who confides about the abuse to the parents. A parent must not be critical, dismissive or angry, but instead act on a child’s complaint. The child must be made to feel that his parent will not brush this matter aside and for that purpose, parents too need to be trained. Hence, along with taking workshops for younger children, I am thinking of their parents as well,” said Lily Patel, principal of Sardar Dastur Boys High School.

At some city schools though, the good touch-bad touch programme is already being implemented in myriad ways. “At our school, we realised the need to empower younger children with knowledge much earlier. That’s why we have special counsellors for younger classes. We teach older children about sex education. We teach younger children about touch, empower them to report any abuse and also have trained our teachers to be sensitive to any such complaints,” said Kamini Saxena, principal, Dr Kalmadi Shamarao School.

dailybhaskar