In a bid to raise awareness of child sexual abuse among school students, the Young Indians (Yi) Madurai Chapter initiated ‘Project Masoom’ at the Lakshmi School in Veerapanjan here on Wednesday.
Speaking at the inauguration, K. Thiagarajan, Chair of the Yi Madurai Chapter, said that it was important to sensitise children across schools as most often, the perpetrator of abuse are people known to children that they become easy prey.
The members of the Yi Madurai Chapter further said that while they would conduct awareness programmes across schools in the district, they would specially focus on government and corporation schools where children were less aware in this regard which make them more vulnerable to such abuse.
Chief guest C. Ramasubramanian, State Nodal Officer for the District Mental Health Programme urged adults to face the problem and place responsibility appropriately with the abuser when child abuse came to light.
On the rise
“The instances of child sexual abuse have been on the rise in the district and it is the duty of responsible parents and teachers to be observant,” he said.
More than 500 students, faculty members and members of the Yi Madurai chapter were a part of the awareness programme.
Elaborating on ‘Safe touch and unsafe touch’ while addressing the students, Sudha Dheep, Co-founder of Topkids and a city-based Gynaecologist said that parents and teachers too had to be involved in the interaction with the children and highlighting to them about staying safe.
“The advancement of technology which has led to the usage of smart phones has led to many personal details and photos going online on social media websites. Youngsters should remain safe and responsible in this regard,” she said.
Hema Sathish, Member of the Yi National Masoom team and Poornima Venkatesh, Chair, Yi Project Masoom also spoke at the event.
