In a dingy classroom, Urvi Wani, a 24-year-old lawyer, is trying get the children of Class II to pay attention to her story.

Urvi, a volunteer of the Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) Awareness programme launched by the Childline India Foundation, is conducting these storytelling sessions in several schools across Mumbai. M&B attends one such session and takes note of this crucial and significant initiative to spread awareness on CSA...

Words Poornima Nair Iyer
Visual Akshay Kulkarni

The Jalbhai Dorabji Bharda School at Grant Road in Mumbai is not an easy place to locate, especially on a rainy day. Despite the precise directions, we have a tough time finding the building close to the railway station. After 15 minutes of dodging the rain and muddy potholes, we find the place. The first floor is where we come to a stop. From there on, the school is simply a maze. The narrow corridor leads the way to several classrooms; all the divisions seem to fit on a single floor! At one point we come to a standstill as it appears we are in the midst of an open classroom, which must have been a balcony at one time. The students curiously glance at us as we are obviously outsiders. Finally, we manage to find the volunteer Urvi, who will let us observe the storytelling session she is conducting in class II.

We follow her to class. All the desks and benches are too crammed to allow us to move freely, so we squeeze, twist and turn our way to find room. I prefer the back bench while Akshay has decided to stand by the door. The 50-odd students notice the big camera and enthusiasm runs like a ripple through the rows. Urvi, despite her delicate appearance, manages to divert their attention to the center of the classroom with her shrill voice. She has propped up a flip chart on the black board. The students are quickly drawn to it.

She begins her story of Bunty, a boy who is the same age as the students in class, she says, and who has a problem he can’t disclose to his parents or friends. He finally decides to go to a zoo where he puts his problem before the wise tiger Sher Khan. The boy doesn’t know yet but he has been abused by an aunt who gives him gifts so she can touch his private parts. Confused and agitated by what’s happening, the boy seeks Sher Khan’s advice. The tiger tells the boy that if he is brave enough to come to him, then he should be able to gather courage and tell his mother what has happened. Urvi flips the pictures while she is telling her story, each image explains Bunty’s predicament. Between the story-telling, she asks the students questions as to what Bunty must do and the students give some clever responses; it seems the message has been made very clear to them.

“Through Bunty’s story, children learn the difference between a safe touch and unsafe touch. The story is interesting and we use visual aids to keep the students engrossed. The session is an interactive one as the little ones always ask questions,” says Nishit Kumar, head of communication and strategic initiatives, Childline India Foundation. “The idea was conceived when in 2009, the high court discharged the three culprits accused in the Anchorage Shelter Case. It took us six years to gather evidence and convince the magistrate court to get a conviction. We are informed by the judge that current laws as described under Section 376 do not allow convictions related to crimes against children. So we worked on a draft law and submitted it to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) who then took up the matter with the Maharashtra government. The home minister of the state, RR Patil gave a commitment that Maharashtra would be the first state to take a tough stand  against child sexual abuse,” he affirms.