To create public awareness about sexual assault during the ongoing Sexual Exploitation Awareness Month (April), more than 100 volunteers of an NGO ‘Bachpan – Save the Innocence’ held a street play at the Sukhna Lake.
The program highlighted the issue of child sexual abuse and other forms of sexual harassment through the street play. “Until we all become aware, sexual abuse is not going to stop, let us all end sexual abuse together,” said the founder of Bachpan Save The Innocence (BSTI), Rahul Singla.
The street play demonstrated various situations under which sexual abuse takes place which not only concerns females but also male members of our society. One may be surprised to find out that boys are more sexually harassed in their childhood than girls. Many a time the abuser is a family member or someone known to the family.
“I was deeply moved by the 2018 Kathua Rape case and wanted to do something. I was surprised to see that there was not even a single organization working on child sexual abuse in Tricity,” Singla told CityWoofer while revealing what motivated him to start Bachpan.
Realising that it was a complex issue, he started conducting workshops and awareness programs to help people identify this as a problem. In the year 2020, Bachpan was able to hold only two workshops – ‘Safe/Unsafe Touch’ and ‘Consent’ through which the NGO sensitized around 2000 children. They have now organized over 14 different workshops, each being a 4-hour program. Bachpan, into its third year now, has sensitized over 19,000 stakeholders through 360+ workshops.
