A group of young students declare war on child abuse in city schools
The U Cube Project has been doing its bit to raise awareness on sexual abuse of children. (Photo: DC)
Hyderabad: The month of October saw several reports of child abuse, physical, emotional and sexual.
The neighbouring city of Bengaluru has seen several shocking cases in just a couple of months. And while people are still digesting the news, a group, The U Cube Project has been doing its bit to raise awareness on sexual abuse of children. Interestingly, the group is run by 17-year-old Murchana and other students from city schools.
The past month has been hectic for the group. Alarmed by the recurrent incidents of abuse, the group, which has a 15-member core, took matters in its hands. “We go from school to school to educate children from Class II to Class V about good and bad touches,” says Mayukha, a member of the group.
The group has come up with presentations, illustrations and demonstrations to teach children to differentiate between good and bad touches. Aditya Maceda says, “Initially kids would start giggling and laughing, but they slowly learned that we were dealing with a serious subject and they started listening intently.”
So far, The U Cube Project has covered eight city schools, including Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Niraj Public School, HPS and even a government school, Kanya Gurukul.
Murchana admits that it has been anything but child’s play. “A lot of schools were apprehensive about the presentation. They felt that the word ‘sexual’ was too strong and might be negative for the students. But once they saw our work, they decided to give it a try.”
Murchana says that their age is also “an advantage because kids can connect to us. But there is also the issue of them not taking us seriously.”
Besides educating parents as well on the issue, the group has also worked on a song to raise awareness. Sidharth B. the music composer has also lent his voice to the song, while Upanaya, another volunteer, has written the lyrics to the song that is titled Kyu.
Secretary of the group, Dakshata, has also come up with a script for a street play. “Through the play we want people to sit up and take notice. We want them to realise the gravity of the situation. The play is scripted in such a way that characters will walk up to the stage and explain how abuse takes place.”
The group is now hosting a run on Sunday and Ganesh Nallari is the chief guest at the event. “I’ve been ‘following’ Ganesh for a long time and since he has always been vocal about raising his voice against child abuse, we thought it would be great to have him support our event,” says Murchana.
( Source : dc )
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