A Bangalore based NGO has taken the task to embark upon an 18 month sensitization program
The Delhi gangrape past year stirred a storm in the country, made the youth hit the street and demand safety for women. Demonstrations erupted and VAW (Violence Against Women) became a familiar acronym, trending on twitter et al. But, rapes continued unabated.
Realising that the Delhi aftermath has made a little dent in making India safer for women despite all the outrage, a city-based NGO has taken the task upon itself. Next month, Bal Utsav will embark on a 18-month sensitisation programme in the city.
Triggered by the recent gangrape in Manipal, the campaign plans to reach out to 25 city schools, parents and drivers of buses, taxis and autorickshaws. The programme is the brainchild of Ramesh Balasundaram, former consultant to Karnataka Knowledge Commission. He says their main aim is to change the perception of menfolk and parents towards the fairer sex.
In the first six months, starting August, the NGO will take its sensitisation programme to schools and colleges in the city, believing in the mantra of ‘catch ‘em young’. The next six months will see its volunteers taking the programme to workplaces. In the final six months, they will focus on bus drivers, auto drivers and taxi drivers.
The NGO will present school children with a mock drill, where they can respond to prevent crimes against women. They will be shown short films and given booklets, besides preparing them to be responsible citizens. Ramesh says the campaign, MENtoring, will urge parents too to teach their sons respecting women.
Ramesh says they are fully prepared and raring to go. He says that for the campaign, the NGO will work closely with a professor from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences and a former DGP, though he declined to reveal the duo’s identity at this stage.
The campaign’s Facebook page—MENtoring(www.facebook.com/mentoring.org)—is up and running to reach out to tech-savvy people.
Plugging the information gap
Ramesh says he got motivated to take up the project in the backdrop of never-ending stream of news about women, girls, teens, pre-teens getting sexually assaulted. He says that while talking to people about it, he realised that most did not know what they could do to stop violence against women.
This is where he thought he should step in: to tell people what they can do. Thus was born the MENtoring campaign.
It will tell people not to assault women, not to be a mute spectator if they see a woman being abused and what to do in such a situation.
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