After several incidents of sexual abuse of the children, schools are now becoming more cautious of the fact and are becoming more proactive in dealing with such situations.
Several schools are not only teaching the students about the good touch and bad touch but are also training their teachers to identify the behavioral pattern among the students.
“Awareness among younger children between Classes I and III is more important as these children are not able to tell the difference between affectionate petting and inappropriate touch,” said Kalpana Dwivedi, principal of St Josephʼs School, Panvel.
The schools are conducting annual sessions on ‘good touch and bad touch’ for students in preprimary and primary classes.
A non-profit organization, The Early Childhood Association (ECA), is working towards protecting the rights of the children and has also issued advisories to the schools across the country teaching schools about how to create awareness among the children, parents and teachers.
“The ECA has also chalked out protocols for schools to follow in case of complaints of child sexual abuse,” said Swati Popat Vats, who is the president of the ECA and heads the Podar Education Network.
“Schools associated with the ECA regularly organize sensitization workshops for children, teachers as well as parents,” she said.
The ECA advises about not leaving the children alone with the male staff members and ask them to make sure that female staff members are always around. It also insists on installing CCTVs and to check the footage on regular basis.
