KOCHI: Nobel Peace laureate and child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi is all set to launch a Bharat Yatra from Kanyakumari to Delhi on September 11 marking the launch of his three-year campaign against child sexual abuse and trafficking.
The yatra will touch Thiruvananthapuram on September 12 and reach Madurai on September 13. It will culminate in New Delhi on October 16. The Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation says that the yatra is aimed at increasing awareness and reporting of child abuse cases, strengthening institutional response, including medical health and compensation, ensuring protection for victims and witnesses during trials and raising convictions of child sexual abuse in a time-bound manner.
The foundation says that it is supported from Kerala by State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Child Line, CII Young India, Lions Club, Rotary Club and District Child Protection Unit apart from NGOs like Don Bosco and educational institutions like Sarvodaya School. When it comes to child sexual abuse, in 99 percent of the cases registered in Kerala in 2015 under POCSO 4 & 6 (penetrative sexual assault on children), the perpetrator was known to the survivor/child victim. Mr Satyarthi has often expressed his concern about the fear that exists in society to stop victims or their families from speaking up. This fear emboldens the criminals to roam freely and commit more heinous crimes, thereby ruining many lives.
“It is critical to make the public aware of the extent and seriousness of the crimes of trafficking and sexual abuse. Citizen mobilisation and mass awareness creation help in bringing this issue to the centre stage for social awakening and action. The yatra will look to change the mindset of the people and sensitise them to the most urgent and pressing issue of child sexual abuse and child trafficking. This abuse is, in fact, an organised crime. Let ‘safe childhood, safe Bharat’ resonate across the country and let it carry the message that we will no longer tolerate the rape of our daughters and sons,” said Mr Satyarthi.
