Govt to teach children what’s safe, unsafe touch

Aditi Tandon

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 2

With no let up in cases of sexual violence against children in schools, the government has taken upon itself the task of telling children the difference between a safe and unsafe touch.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development is working on a film to help children understand their bodies, its various parts and the fact that they alone have complete control over their bodies.

“The film will be screened in government schools first. We can start from four-year-olds and go upwards evolving the content of the film depending on the age group we want to target,” a source in the ministry told The Tribune today.

The idea for the film came from the success of an awareness video against domestic violence which actor Madhuri Dikshit anchored.

Government officials said the need to teach children the importance of controlling their bodies arose from the scale of sexual violence against them. WCD Ministry’s own recent survey showed that half of India’s children have experienced physical or sexual violence at least once in their lives. The trend is global.

Ministry officials admit that back home, psychological responses to violence are limited on account of lack of life skill knowledge among children. The debate on whether to have sex education in schools has raged on for years with a majority of the states resisting the proposal of the AIDS Control department to have one such module.

But the latest film, a WCD Ministry source said, will address some of that gap though not the whole. The film will tell children about safe touches as “touches that make them feel cared for” such as hugs, pats on the back, arm around the shoulder etc. An unsafe touch contrarily will be shown as something which hurts children emotionally or physically such as pushing, pinching, hitting etc.

“It is important for parents to tell children that it is okay to say no to people who want to hug or kiss them. We will have to cover the fact that it is not fine for people to touch children’s private parts,” said a ministry source adding that the discussion on the film has been held with the HRD Ministry.