Rajasthan government has launched a special campaign – Safe School Safe Rajasthan – in government schools. Under the campaign 60 lakh students studying in more than 66,000 government schools were sensitised about Good Touch and Bad Touch, which will help prevent molestation cases and other sexual abuses happening against minors.
Naveen Jain, secretary, school education said that such initiatives are important for building up healthy society.
“We have made more than 60 lakh students aware of Good Touch and Bad Touch through 75,000 teachers across government schools in the state in a day. We will soon launch this campaign in private schools also. Every child should feel safe every where,” he said .
This is probably first time in the history that more than 60 lakh students have joined together at one platform. The department is collecting data from schools across the state. Then the department will claim for the world record.
Special training for teachers
Jain said that on Saturdays – designated as No Bag Day – special sessions will be organised for students of government schools including Mahatma Gandhi English Medium Schools, Kasturba Gandhi Girls Residential Schools and Swami Vivekanand Mode Schools.
He said that the department has given special training to 1200 teachers and officials about Good Touch Bad Touch. These 1200 master trainers have further given training to one teacher each from 50 schools. Now these trainers will create awareness about Good Touch Bad Touch in their respective schools.
Sparsh Ek Pahal
Jain, a 2001 batch IAS officer, has been doing this initiative of Good Touch Bad Touch since August 2019. He and his team members Priyanka and Vikram have been creating awareness among children through this programme – Sparsh Ek Pahal.
Under the programme, children are told that if someone finds them alone and tries a ‘bad touch', then how to avoid them in three steps. “The kids are told to adopt a ‘no, go, tell' strategy which revolves around shouting ‘no', running away and getting someone to share the experience.
There are several other modules of the programme which cover toddles to teenagers.
Now a new package has also been launched – Sparsh for Teachers – for students studying B.Ed. The aim is to make them aware about Sparsh for Children, and Sparsh for Teenagers, so that whenever they join any school or open their own, they first teach children about good and bad touch and then continue with the syllabus.
According to the NCRB data from 2020, approximately 28.9% of the entire child population experienced some form of sexual crime, yet only 65.6% of these crimes were reported. 90 percent of these cases occur within the family
In India, an alarming statistic reveals that one in every two children has endured sexual abuse before turning 18, predominantly at the hands of family members or individuals known to them.
The BuckStopper, run by a group of seasoned journalists, holds the powerful accountable. The buck stops with them, as they cannot shrug off their official responsibilities.
