Issues pertaining to child abuse and neglect have been grappling our society for a long time. Until quite recently, children did not enjoy many rights and freedoms in relation to the mufti-dimensional development of their personalities. It is quite recently that this issue has begun to be addressed widely, with steps undertaken to dress the same.
In western Jurisdictions, prevention of child abuse and neglect has become a matter of high priority and is being addressed through a wide range of legislations, policies and social institutions. However, India still continues to be flagrantly deficient in legal mandates and social assistance to adequately identify, prevent, treat and remedy this problem. This evident lack of socio-legal will is also reflected in our educational institutions wherein young children are hardly ever informed of their rights, or about matters related to child maltreatment which they ay encounter at home, school, and other Institutions they may Interact with.
In an effort to become socially relevant lawyers and humanists, students of the child Abuse and Neglect Seminar volunteered to spread awareness on this burgeoning problem, and decided to organize a workshop entitled “The Blue Ribbon Campaign” for the students of certain schools in and around Smarter village, Hydrated. II. CONCEPTUALIZATION The Idea of a workshop came up during class discussions on the need for a policy which could focus on spreading information on child abuse and neglect among hillier, along with equipping them with the right strategies to identify and combat the same in their personal spaces.
It was eventually realized that even before deliberating upon such a policy, what was immediately needed was some sort of endeavourer from our end, as socially relevant individuals, to contribute to the Immediate society we were living In. It was decided that we would organize a about child maltreatment. The workshop was intended to provide the perfect forum for these children to become aware, alert and updated on child abuse and its multiple forms.
After a lot of deliberation, the Campaign was divided into two segments- the first constituting the said workshop for the local schools, and the second being the ‘Blue Ribbon Day which was to be observed on the ANNALS premises for college students and faculty members. These events were organized on 28th September and 4th October, 2013 respectively. Ill. PREPARATION The first task was to decide on the components of the workshop, through which different concepts concerning child abuse and neglect would be touched upon.
After a lot of brainstorming, it was decided that the workshop for schools would be divided onto six segments informal interaction explaining child abuse and neglect and its various kinds; distribution of informative material on child rights; screening of short movies to explain the concept of corporal punishment and safe/unsafe touch to young children; conducting a quiz competition themed on ‘child abuse and neglect’; teaching strategies to handle situations of child sexual abuse at home and school; and receiving statistical feedback on the instances of abuse witnessed by the students through a draft questionnaire.
The outline set, the second task was to prepare the posters and other aids to generate awareness. In order to make this task more systematic and organized, the seminar students divided themselves into different committees. The Poster and Pamphlet Committees contributed towards preparation of informative posters and pamphlets, which were to be put up in the schools and be distributed to students, their parents and school authorities respectively. Keeping the age and sensibilities of the target group in mind, informative documentaries and animated videos were hand-picked by the Movie Screening Committee.
The Competitions Committee planned a quiz competition to let the students have fun while they learn about child alternately. Additionally, a questionnaire was also prepared by the Questionnaire Committee with aid and inputs from the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (CASPIAN), aiming to question students regarding the instances of child abuse they may have faced through simple yes/no’ type questions. The third task was to go about finding the schools and request the concerned authorities to permit us to conduct the workshop.
A proposal letter on behalf of the seminar students was also sent to certain schools in the vicinity of Smarter village in this regard. The relevant permissions and arrangement of transportation was handled by Mr.. Ashes Kumar, a seminar student. For the purpose of this exercise, three schools were zeroed in upon: Died Soothe School, Evergreen School and SST. Pall’s Academy, the concerned authorities of which seemed quite enthusiastic in letting us carry forward our endeavourers in their premises.
As far as the in-campus component of ‘Blue Ribbon Day was concerned, we tied up with the Cultural Committee, and got that particular Friday themed as the “Blue Ribbon Day’. The academic block, classrooms, library, dining area and other notice boards. Web Pages were also created so as to generate publicity by way of social networking websites. The seminar students also made blue ribbons and wristbands as symbols of solidarity to the victims of child abuse for the students and faculty members. ‘V. EXECUTION DAY 1: THE BLUE RIBBON WORKSHOP-seep. 8, 2013 The workshop which was to be organized for the school students was executed in three phases, with the seminar students being divided into three groups. Each group carried out the components of the workshop in a different school. While Group 1 covered Died Soothe School, Group 2 and Group 3 covered SST. Paula Academy and Evergreen School respectively. Produced hereinabove is the execution report regarding each of the said groups. A. Phase I: Died Soothe School Group-I comprised of 8 seminar students and conducted the workshop in Died Soothe School, a high school situated right within the Smarter village.
The seminar students reached the school premises at 8 a. M. Sharp and began putting up posters in the assembly courtyard of the school. Students who were Just entering the school were extremely excited to see these colorful posters and instantaneously began to gather around the same. The students and school authorities were so curious to now about ‘child abuse and neglect’ that they even decided to shift their mid-term examinations to a different time-slot so that we could carry on with the workshop. After the school assembly concluded, students from Grade V to VIII were asked to gather in a classroom.
It was inquired if they already knew something about child abuse. As assumed, they did not have much idea about child abuse, or how to recognize the same. The first exercise, hence, was to acquaint them with the basic understanding of child abuse and its various forms, like physical, emotional, sexual abuses, kinds of neglect, maltreatment, bullying and he like. The students were involved into an interactive dialogue using real-life examples and visual aids. They were initially reluctant to open up, but with the right amount of encouragement from our end, they positively contributed to the discussion.
A Seminar Student Interacting with the Students The second exercise was the screening of a short animated video prepared by Childlike entitled “Rose”. The film title is symbolic of its theme that each child ‘blossoms’ differently and needs adequate degree of space, time and compassion to develop into a bright individual. It dealt with the rampant problem of corporal enmeshment at schools and the physical, emotional and psychological effects which to the rights guaranteed to them under UN Convention on Child Rights (UNCUT) as well as Indian legislations.
The message put forth by the film that corporal punishment is banned under the Right to Education Act, 2010 was well received by the students and school authorities alike. Thereafter, a short training exercise was conducted for the students wherein they were educated about child sexual abuse and the correct ways to react to any instance of the same in their personal spaces. A video clip from popular TV show- ‘Statement Estate’ was shown to the dents wherein the host Mari Khan explains the concept of good and bad touch to the children on the sets of the show.
The students were quite enthralled to see their favorite celebrity educating them on an important issue and keenly paid attention to the entire discussion. They learnt that there are two kinds of touch-good and bad, and that bad touch is when they are touched at the three ‘danger’ zones (being the chest, bottom and space between the legs). They also learnt that when arrested with any instance of bad touch, they are required to immediately inform their parents/teachers/other trustworthy persons about it.
Training Session on Child Sexual Abuse in Full Swing The Quiz Competition was the next exercise in line, wherein the students were questioned on child rights, forms of abuse and neglect, bullying and the like. It was basically conducted to determine if the students paid attention to, and could internalize, the information on child abuse and neglect which was disseminated to them through the abovementioned exercises. The response was overwhelming. The winners were also rewarded with candies and chocolates.
Thereafter, the students were asked to fill up the draft questionnaire under which questions were formulated n such a manner so as to determine possible cases of abuse and neglect in their school and homes. The responses of 50 students of the School were recorded. 18 out of 50 students witnessed bad behavior of parents under the influence of alcohol or drugs. 31 students witnessed adults shouting at each other and 22 witnessed domestic violence. 31 got shouted at by their family members, and 21 students faced physical abuse by a family member. 1 students have got bullied or teased at home, about which they felt bad. 14 students faced hunger or thirst, and 11 students were not taken care off when sick. In respect to experiences in school, only one student does not enjoy going to school, and 4 students do not feel safe there. 18 students faced corporal punishments, and 21 faced verbal abuse. 27 students responded that they have been bullied by a senior, in one way or the other. Tabular Depiction of the Outcomes of the Questionnaire in School 1 and school authorities.
These pamphlets centered around child rights and the duty of schools and parents in ensuring effective realization of these rights to the children. The workshop concluded with distribution of candies to the students and informing them about relevant alpine numbers on child abuse and neglect. The seminar students received an overwhelmingly positive reaction from the school. The children took our contact numbers and assured that they would inform us if they ever faced any instance of child abuse. The senior students also pledged to educate their younger counterparts at home and school about the same.
The School Principal was quite impressed by our endeavourer and expressed that similar exercises should be conducted by us in future as well. We could not have asked for more! B. Phase II: SST. Pall’s Academy Group II consisted of 7 people who conducted the workshop at the SST. Pall’s School located in Smarter. As part of the workshop we were required to spread awareness about Child Abuse, which we did by incorporating a variety of activities such as Movie screening, quizzing, distributing pamphlets etc. We arrived at the school as per schedule and were greeted by students of Grades VI, VII and VIII, eager to hear us out.
We started the workshop by introducing the topic and describing all its facets in detail including sexual, physical and emotional child abuse. Then we proceeded to screening of movies which was followed by a discussion about the content of the movies. The discussion ensured that any doubts in the minds of students are removed and at the same time, it gave them the space to ask questions. Later, a questionnaire was required to be filled by the students which have been discussed in detail in the latter part of this heading.
The kids had difficulty understanding some of the questions in the questionnaire provided to them. We helped the kids by explaining to them what is meant by those questions. Further, the nature of the questions explored the possibility of any physical or emotional abuse experienced by the children in their home and school. We explained to the kids what s meant by physical and emotional abuse or whether at any point of time they felt neglected by their parents or guardians. The group screened two short films.
One was a feature film called ‘Rose’ and the other was a video clip from the television show ‘Statement Estate’. Since the school did not have a projector to screen the films they were shown to the students by group members from their laptops. ‘Rose’ was an animated video which depicted what effect does a teacher’s harsh language has on young learners. The other clip had Mari Khan, the host of Statement Estate explaining to the children with the elf of a human body diagram how one can be sexually abused and what their actions should be if something like that happens to them.
The children understood and enjoyed the movies. Some children who could not understand Hindi were explained the meaning by the group members later. In the discussion that followed what we tried putting emphasis on was the fact that if something of this sort ever happens to them they should immediately report it to someone they trust. Also, child’s fault and hence they shouldn’t be ashamed of reporting such an incident. In the group’s opinion this activity was very beneficial and it was the first time most of hem were given a talk on child sexual abuse.
Students Being Educated about Kinds of Child Abuse Subsequent to the screening of awareness videos, the school children were given out questionnaires to gauge any abuse they might be facing. The questions in the questionnaire were prepared taking ideas from CASPIAN (International Society for the prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect ) model questionnaire. In furtherance of this the following data was collected from a total of 45 students out of which 36 are boys and 9 are girls. Number of Boys :36 Never Occasional Always Children’s experience at home 12 8 4
Bad behavior of adults under the influence of drug and Alcohol 5 9 Physical abuse experienced 11 6 7 Verbal abuse Emotional abuse 10 Bullying by other child at home Prevalence of Child Neglect Children’s experience at school and outside home 13 Feeling secure at school 2 3 Humiliation/Teasing/Bull Physical punishment Wing 14 Prevented from mingling with peers Number of Girls: 09 influence of drug and Alcohol Children’s experience at school and outside home Feeling secure at school Humiliation Prevented from mingling with peers Bullying The data makes it clear that some of the students do not feel safe at home and are also being physically abused at home. As indicated in the table, a considerable number of them are subjected to angry scolding and beating by adults at home. Some of them face bullying by older and senior students at school. Neglect to their essential requirements is another area brought to light in the table. Lastly, every member of the group got an opportunity to interact with the students individually which ensured that students could confide in the member and put all his problems at bay.
We were also fortunate enough to interact with the teachers of the school and shushed for a more tolerant and student centric method of teaching in the school. The session was concluded with the distribution of pamphlets and candies to the school children. The pamphlets contained very basic information on child abuse and neglect. The information enclosed in the pamphlets were given in simple language so that it could be understood by the school children. The pamphlets were given to two senior students and the Administration who were delegated the task of distributing it to children from the other classes. This was followed by a brief thank you to all the children for their time and cooperation.
