Delhi-based Our Voix aims to create awareness on sexual abuse and give children a voice
Youth-led organisation Our Voix is working towards preventing child sexual abuse by sensitising children, teachers, and parents. It has reached out to 50 schools and colleges and 10 NGOs across four cities till now, and aims to step up its efforts this year.
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In India, a child is sexually abused or raped every few minutes, according to a report by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The report also indicates that an astounding 1,06,958 cases of crime were recorded against children in the country. Of these, 36,022 cases were related to sexual violence.
At an age when children are unable to differentiate between good and bad touch, creating awareness on issues like sexual abuse and exploitation is imperative.
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Delhi-based Our Voix wants to help children differentiate between good and bad touch.
Striving to make an impact is Delhi-based Our Voix, which is a youth-led organisation. Founded by 25-year-old Megha Bhatia in 2018, Our Voix conducts free workshops and events to sensitise teachers, parents, and children about child sexual abuse.
Megha Bhatia, Founder, Our Voix.
“We live in a world where stereotypes, taboos, and stigmas with regard to child sexual abuse occupy centre stage. Neither do people try to uncover trapped voices behind all the distress and ill treatment, nor do they provide adequate support to overcome it. Our Voix is on a mission to break this practice. Since its inception, the organisation has reached out to over 14,000 children by holding 500 workshops across schools in Hyderabad, Odisha, Delhi, and Jaipur,” Megha Bhatia, Founder, Our Voix, tells YourStory.
How Our Voix came into the picture
After completing her bachelor of law degree from Amity Law School in Noida, Megha Bhatia went on to pursue a master’s degree in human rights at University College of London (UCL). Here, she was introduced to the nitty gritties of child sexual abuse when she took up a research project.
“Through the length and breadth of the assignment, I realised the gravity of sexual exploitation cases. The act of coercing or forcing a child to indulge in any form of sexual activity has long-lasting effects. It can cause deep psychological impacts and regressive behaviours. Since then, I always had a deep desire to work in this space. When I got back to India, I finally saw an opportunity to set up an organisation focused on awareness and prevention of child sexual abuse,” Megha recollects.
Megha Bhatia with the volunteers of Our Voix.
Presently, Our Voix has a volunteer base of over 200 people including lawyers, psychologists, and management consultants from across the globe, including London, the US, and India. The organisation has also accumulated funds to the tune of Rs 3 lakh from crowdfunding sources and private individuals to drive its initiatives.
The path to empowerment
One of the main reasons for the occurrence of sexual misconduct is lack of awareness. The stigma associated with sex education in India is so deep that parents and teachers hesitate to talk to children about sexual advances and threats. Our Voix aims to break this convention by offering free workshops for not only children, but also teachers and parents.
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Volunteers of Our Voix conduct a workshop to educate children about sexual abuse.
“We started by holding preventive programmes on child sexual abuse for children in Class 1 to 6 in schools and welfare homes. All the knowledge imparted as part of this is based on the POWER module – power to say no, power to judge between a good and bad touch, power to trust, power over body parts, and power to raise a voice. Besides, all the volunteers who are given charge to train children are prepped to deliver content that is culturally appropriate, age specific, and child friendly,” explains Megha.
Most of these sessions last for 25 minutes, and involve activity-based learning methods. For instance, the concept of good and bad touch is introduced through performing arts like dance, theatre, and storytelling.
Our Voix also conducts two-hour awareness sessions for parents and teachers covering aspects like reporting cases of misconduct, handling disclosure, protecting children from incest, and the legal rights and provisions associated with child sexual abuse.
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Our Voix is giving a platform for children to voice out sexual abuse concerns.
“One of the biggest challenges that we encountered was to obtain requisite permission from schools and corporates to conduct workshops. Many of them refused the offer because of their mental block to openly communicate about a topic like sexual violence. However, of late, we are able to see some light at the end of the tunnel,” Megha says.
Breaking the silence
Our Voix has conducted workshops in several schools and colleges across India, including Bal Bharati Public School, North Delhi Municipal Corporation, Springdales School, and Maharishi University of Information Technology. The organisation has also worked with children and caretakers in NGOs such as Aashman Foundation, Lakshyam, Pehchaan, and Rainbow Foundation.
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Our Voix uses activities like singing, dancing and storytelling to talk about child sexual abuse.
A vast majority of children today do not know how to describe or talk about sexual abuse. They never open up, thinking it might have been their fault. The organisation believes that one of the best ways to drive away this kind of ignorance is through campaigns.
The team did just that by putting together programmes like stage plays, music performances, and unique events such as the Global Bubble Parade in Delhi aimed to help people raise their voice against sexual violence and the #ISTANDFORBACHPAN social media drive to spread the message among youth.
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This year, Our Voix organised a Global Bubble Parade in Delhi to raise awareness about child sexual abuse.
In the last one year, Our Voix has reached out to 50 schools and colleges and 10 NGOs across four cities in India.
“We, as teachers, used to hesitate to talk about sexual misconduct with children earlier. However, after Our Voix conducted a workshop in our school, things became easier. Not only did the students gain awareness, but many of them also came forward to openly report incidents of abuse in their homes as well as outside. I think these kind of sessions need to be held at all schools across the country,” says Anju, a teacher at Government Secondary School in Delhi.
Our Voix’s effort in terms of both preventing child sexual abuse and lending a voice to the ones already affected is all set to grow stronger.
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A presentation about sexual abuse delivered by Our Voix as part of one of their workshops.
“We are planning to get in touch with children, parents, and teachers across 400 schools in the next one year. Besides, the team is working on spreading the word through webinars and online workshops. In order to engage children in a creative manner, Our Voix is also going to release comic books touching upon child sexual abuse in 2019,” Megha says.
(Edited by Megha Reddy)
