Sankara Eye Hospital organises workshop on sexual abuse awareness for specially challenged girl children

To create awareness among the specially challenged girl children about the child sexual abuse, Sankara Eye hospital in association with Young Indians organised a workshop with a theme of ‘Empowering Girls for a Brighter Tomorrow’. Conducted by Ashwini NV, Founder and Director, Muktha Foundation in the presence of Ravikumar C J, Nodal officer, District Disability Rehabilitation Centre and Dr Kaushik Murali, Medical President, Quality and Education, Sankara Eye Hospital, the workshop included sessions on safe and unsafe touch, concept on private parts, preventing child sexual abuse and safety skills. The objective of the workshop was to make the children aware of sexual abuse and how to deal with such situations. The 50 specially challenged children who attended the workshop were from rural areas of Bengaluru.

The concept of consent was introduced among children, along with the difference between a safe and unsafe touch. The children then yelled out NO, to train them to respond to an event of abuse. They were taught of the steps to take and go tell a trusted adult until they listened and responded. They learned how abuse could affect them, how to protect themselves from abuse and whom to approach if something happened to them. The children were encouraged to report and complain about the incident and the abuser without getting scared.

The workshop highlighted the fact that it was absolutely essential that girls raise their voice against any misconduct and get the perpetrators to justice as it will not only teach the perpetrators a lesson, but also act as a deterrent against them repeating the offense. “We’ve always had an emphasis on helping specially challenged children. We wanted to create awareness and educate children on sexual abuse which is a very important topic to be discussed. Through this interactive workshop, children learnt about personal safety, sexual abuse and different types of touch and speak up against the injustice,” said Dr Kaushik Murali, Medical President, Quality & Education, Sankara Eye Hospital.