Founder’s Note
Recent reports by Child Rights and You (CRY) states that a child is sexually abused every 15 minutes. Most of the time, the children targeted are very young and usually below nine years of age. In this scenario, Digital Empowerment Foundation decided that it is important to impart knowledge among the children where Smartpur project is actively running on ‘good touch and bad touch’ since the report also states that in approximately 95 per cent cases of child abuse, the perpetrator is someone they know- acquaintances including neighbours and family members. In 10 per cent cases, children were raped by their own relatives.
Recent reports by Child Rights and You (CRY) states that a child is sexually abused every 15 minutes. Most of the time, the children targeted are very young and usually below nine years of age. In this scenario, Digital Empowerment Foundation decided that it is important to impart knowledge among the children where Smartpur project is actively running on ‘good touch and bad touch’ since the report also states that in approximately 95 per cent cases of child abuse, the perpetrator is someone they know- acquaintances including neighbours and family members. In 10 per cent cases, children were raped by their own relatives.
The number of cases registered for child abuse raised from 8,904 in the year 2014 to 14,913 in the year 2015, under the POCSO Act. The number of POCSO cases took place state wise – Uttar Pradesh led the highest number of child abuse cases (3,078) followed by Madhya Pradesh (1,687 cases), Tamil Nadu (1,544 cases), Karnataka (1,480 cases) and Gujarat (1,416 cases).
Instead of reporting the heinous act, a lot of parents decide to hide this incident for the sake of their ‘family honour’. Therefore, it is indeed important that children are taught at a very young age about how to recognise ‘good touch and bad touch’.
In order to sensitise children and make them aware on how to spot and report these cases of sexual abuse and molestation, a workshop was organised with all the children. A short movie by ‘Childline’ about a girl named Komal was screened for the children. They were also introduced to the child helpline number ‘1098’, so that if they face any abuse they can reach for help through dialling this number.
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