To mark the prevention of child sexual abuse week, over 200 heads of Chennai Corporation schools came together for an awareness and sensitisation session organised by the Gender and Policy lab and the Education Department of the Greater Chennai Corporation on Saturday.
Discussing the various provisions of G.O. 83 on ‘Guidelines for Student Safety in Tamil Nadu’ issued by the Tamil Nadu School Education Department, Nancy Thomas from Tulir - Centre for Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse, addressed the heads of schools about the steps to be taken in school for awareness and prevention of child sexual abuse.
Ms. Thomas stressed the need for schools to form student safeguarding advisory committees as specified in the G.O., and spoke about how important it was for teachers to undergo an annual orientation on the POCSO Act, 2012. Thanasekaran Pandian, Joint Director and Senthil Kumar, Regional Probation Officer from the Department of Social Defence addressed the teachers on the provisions of the POCSO Act.
Sneha Divakaran, Deputy Commissioner, Education, GCC, said that the Gender and Policy lab was working on regular awareness and sensitisation of teachers and students across schools under the GCC. “As a part of the initiatives for prevention of child sexual abuse week, students from Corporation schools will also be visiting police stations near their schools and will interact with the police personnel on child protection measures,” she noted.
