Ten students from the city’s St. Mary’s College will be teaming up with the SHE team to curb violence against women in the city. The project, called Community Led Action Programme by Police, or CLAPP, is an initiative of The International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care, Chennai, US Consulate and the SHE team. “The team asked us questions regarding what we felt about the current scenario of women in the society and about women abuse. My group and I had performed a skit, where we enacted a girl being eve-teased outside a theatre and what should be the immediate action,” says Sana Kausar, who is pursuing BBA Second year. Akash Dhanturi, another Second Year student adds, “We had a series of presentations, discussions and JAM sessions before the final 10 were picked,”
The students will attend workshops and undergo training about how to deal with various situations. “My role initially would be to collect data and interact with students and people around us and discuss how to curb violence against women,” adds Akash.
Shubham Khatri, another Second Year student, says their job would be to change the society’s mentality. “We would be given questionnaires and with it’s help we would try to find out people’s opinion about various issues that women face and how to curb these.”
Akash adds, “It is our responsibility to stop any kind of abuse or violence against women. On a personal level too, whenever I’ll notice a girl in trouble, I shall interrupt and ask the victim if she needs help and accordingly try to sort things out. Being a member of CLAPP, I would know how to react in a way so that things don’t go out of hand while I help.”
B. Suma Reddy, another volunteer, believes that change has to come from within. “We can’t change the mindset of people until they themselves realise that what they are doing is wrong.”
Swati Lakra, additional commissioner of police (Crimes and SIT), too feels that it is important to check where we are going wrong. “We picked up students because they are the future of the country. As volunteers, they have to come up with new ideas on how to curb violence against women and make the society a safe place. The students will attend workshops and will be campaigning to find out solutions against harassment at public places, domestic violence etc. Students are the one’s who are on the ground and know what is happening.”
She adds, “Policing and judiciary are short-term approaches. Only when people and the society at large starts respecting women can we see the real change.”
