The best way to convey a message to children is through the media they hold close to their heart. Comic books used to be very popular a few years ago. Even now, most children would not put down a comic book if the tale is gripping enough.
That is why consultant psychologist Bindu Aravind chose the medium of comic books to create awareness on child sexual abuse among children. ‘Psycholight’, published by Olive Books just a week ago, is a collection of comic strips that conveys to children information on various forms of abuse through a gripping storyline.
Dr. Bindu has been working as a consultant psychologist at a health centre at Nadapuram for the last four years and has come across various cases of child abuse that were never reported. “People are either hesitant to report fearing dishonour, or children are unaware of what happened to them,” she said.
She has been holding awareness classes for children at schools for a long time. “Children these days are much more aware of these issues than those five years ago, thanks to a lot of awareness programmes,” she said, adding that her experience in penning poems as well as the experience as a psychologist has been combined to put up the comic strips.
‘Psycholight’ consists of five short comic strips, one for each disorder like trying for sexual intercourse with children paedophilia, voyeurism, underwear fetish, the tendency to grope women and the tendency to steal even if you did not want the object (kleptomania). Though kleptomania is not related to abuse, it has also been included in the book as it is very common among teenagers.
Dr. Bindu has introduced the book to the Director of Public Instruction, who has referred it to the State Council for Educational Research and Training. If approved by the SCERT, it will soon be available for the school students in the State as a manual on defence against sexual abuse.
