When Kanal, an organisation that works for the empowerment of children through awareness, conducted campaigns on safe touch, sex education and online security at a school in the city, girl students confided in its volunteers that the drivers of autorickshaws that ferried them from and to school showed them pornographic videos. One child revealed abuse by a close relative.
In another school, students were shown pornographic content by their seniors. One child left lewd notes for a teacher.
Anson P.D. Alexander, president of Kanal, says it was after striking a rapport with the students that they got them to open up. “Children told us about abuse, something they had not told their teachers or even counsellors about.”
Kanal that conducts campaigns in many schools finds one thing in common among students, be it among those in government schools or high-end ones — lack of awareness.
“Students’ ignorance of sexuality lands them in a host of problems. Besides introducing them to biological aspects as is done by the National Health Mission, there is need to provide them information on other aspects that they cannot get easily from sources such as the Internet. However, this is not really happening,” says Anson.
Unhealthy content
A lot of information on sex that children get is through the Internet. Some is also through friends or seniors.
Worryingly, most of it is not healthy, says Anson. “Pornographic videos are available under various tags, some of it extremely violent. This is what students grow up seeing. This can have a lasting impression on them and their relationships.”
Illustration: Sreejith R. Kumar
Girls, he says, are no strangers to such content.
“Pornographic videos can have an adverse impact on their self-esteem. They start thinking it is fine to be treated as objects.”
Children whose minds are bombarded by adult content are unable to make sense of gender equality.
“Talking to them about gender equality or respect when they see the opposite sex as a commodity is futile.”
He stresses the role of awareness and information in promoting gender equality.
“There is such a taboo about things related to the human body. Boys, for instance, do not know that girls suffer from pain or mood swings at the time menstruation. If they were informed, they might start seeing girls not as sexual objects, but as people with feelings.”
Banning pornographic websites is not the answer. “Children who are familiar with the latest technology have no problems in accessing such content elsewhere on the Net. Parents, on the other hand, are crippled by their failure to understand the latest gadgets and technology.”
Start early
Catch them young is what Anson recommends. Children start talking about the opposite sex and relationships quite young.
Soon, they enter into these, and often these turn physical, throwing up lot of complications.
“Students should start getting some information about such topics by the time they are in Class VI and VII. This will ensure that they do not enter into physical relationships without any idea of its repercussions, or get exploited by someone, or hooked on to pornographic content that is far removed from reality of real relationships.”
Parents, he says, are the best people to inform students owing to the trust factor.
Teachers or counsellors may have limited success because the subject is sensitive and students may not open up easily to them.
“Parents and teachers have to be informed about how to speak to children.”
Vulnerability survey
He calls for a vulnerability survey among students in city schools to identify the problems faced by children, starting from abuse to blue films, drugs and other anti-social activities.
Anson stresses the need for a cautious and professional approach to sex education so that it is not misunderstood or misused.
“Our experience with schools in the city is that problems arising from the lack of awareness are much more than what we imagine. The government’s initiatives need to be tailored towards identifying, discussing, and addressing these in an innovative manner.”
