Children as early as the age of four, develop understanding of their safe space and identify their
person of comfort . With this safety, they move ahead in their venture to explore the world. There
are times when the sense of safety is hampered by scaring a child for life, where their physical,
emotional and all other boundaries are shattered. We as adults often think, it is not healthy to talk
to children about what sexual abuse is as it may corrupt their minds and they will automatically
learn about it as and how they grow, till then parents can shield them from all cruelty of the
world. In doing so, we deprive our children of the basic chance to protect themselves or prevent
something from happening even before the perpetrator has a chance to abuse anyone.
Sexual Abuse has been a consistant part of history, a continues crime that overpowers our world
today, and for the foreseeable future. The only way to combat it is education and awareness in all
age groups, genders, working hand in hand as a society. Whenever we educate young minds, we
often use the phrases “Good Touch” , “Bad Touch”. Understanding of sexual Abuse is much
beyond good and bad touch, and often consists of actions which does not include touch. Keeping
all these concerns in mind, an educational workshop for the 6th grade students was conducted to
emphasize on understanding their personal space, boundaries, identifying touches, elaborating
on the safety guides to single out potential situations of abuse.
The workshop began with understanding personal space, emotional and physical boundaries,
identifying safe adults and parts of their body which are private to only them. Following this,
elaborate explanations of touch and non touch abuse were taught with situations children can
relate to in their daily life. When any abuse or discomfort is experienced by a child, they often
refuse to report it or keep shut either because they are still being manipulated by the abuser, or
because of the fear of blurting out information and not being trusted or helped about it. They
often feel they are alone in this, blaming themselves. Children most times don’t have the
knowledge to farthem words to explain what they are undergoing. To tackle this, the workshop
emphasized on empowering young minds to identify the grooming tricks, what to do when felt
uncomfortable or inappropriately touched, drawing support from teaching them about the laws
and privileges the government provides to children in such situations. The Workshop concluded
with an elaborate discussion on the acronym – S.A.F.E.T.Y G.U.I.D.E, where children were
taught to identify various situations of abuse and how to work efficiently with them.
It is not possible to teach a child every possible trick an abuser might pull off, but it is important
to educate the child what the possibilities are. We as a society need to create a space for children
where they know their safe adult is waiting and here to protect them. Empowered children living
under an unempowered household is a bigger risk factor for contributing to further cases of
abuse. Conversations about abuse are not to scare the child, but to empower them in a way,
where they know what abuse is, how to prevent it, how and whom to reach out for help in times
of need.

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