About Project CACA- Children Against Child Abuse in , New Delhi

Project CACA has been developed keeping in mind the observations made by various State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights like (DCPCR).

“Education plays a vital role in transforming society by making its children more aware, open minded and independent. Schools and other institutions that provide education, therefore are vital in the role they play in creating a nurturing environment for children where they can learn their core values and define their initial behaviours. On the flip side, however, they are also targeted breeding grounds for sexual abuse and without the right preventive mechanisms, can be the unwitting accomplices to the perpetuation of Child Sexual Abuse – CSA.

Schools are uniquely placed to break the patterns of violence by giving children, their parents and communities the knowledge and skills to communicate, negotiate and resolve conflicts in more constructive ways.

Educational institutions can also help in preventing the creation of future abusive behaviour in children by inculcating in them the right attitudes and ensuring they have access to the correct information, particularly around gender, health and myths that shroud abuse. In most situations, the child or teacher can neither recognise early behaviours and therefore prevent the onset of sexual abuse nor do they know what to do once it has occurred.“

Project CACA workbook have been developed to empower the children with knowledge that give them an understanding of the body, about abuse, telling them that there are ways they can stay safe and a safety net exist for them in the form of child helpline numbers, agencies, laws, institutions etc. that they can approach. The objective is to make a child assertive.

The project consists of:

Child-centric, age-appropriate, progressive, awareness cum skill building safety workbooks for students and companion parent-cum-teacher guidebooks.
Teaching aid for teachers and parents on creating awareness/ skill building among children on CSA prevention.
Educative and interactive workshops/ sessions/ sensitization for teachers as well as non-teaching staff, parents and children.
Self Defence workshops for children.
Legal and Counselling support to the child survivors of sexual abuse.
Blogs – Forums for students/teachers/ parents.
Workshops for Teacher training Institutes.
Conducting Surveys on Child Sexual Abuse related matters.
The core rationale of the project is based on the axiom

“Prevention is Better than Cure”.

Project CACA follows a holistic approach covering all the stakeholders from policy makers to end users.

To begin with, the focus area of the project is circulation of safety workbooks for

children and parent cum teacher guide in the academic year 2017-18. In the first phase of circulation, these books are in English language and available for circulation in private Schools across India.

Project Children Against Child Abuse (Project CACA) is a unique initiative under which we have primarily taken a rights-based approach towards creating a learning oriented, an engaging and interactive education module on prevention of child abuse through child-centric and age appropriate safety workbooks and parent cum teacher guide books. The books are the positive outcome of focused group discussion – FGD held at IIT Delhi in July 2016 on 'Abuse Against Children & Ways to Combat the Issue' and opinion polls-cum-surveys conducted by SAI about the problem. These books, no doubt, are the “need of the hour”. The books have been judiciously designed after research, case studies, and discussions with educators, parents, school counsellors and subject experts on Psychology, Self- Defense, and Legal matters.

The core volunteers and interims for the project at the initial stages were from Delhi School of Social Work, University of Delhi and counselors from various schools.
NGO Red Dot Foundation is our partner for awareness cum skill building workshops for parents, teachers and non – teaching staff and students (http://safecity.in/). The Foundation, through their workshops on sexual abuse in communities and schools, is working towards creating awareness on sexual abuse and abuse amongst the stakeholders.
Our partner Council to Secure Justice (CSJ) (http://www.scjindia.org) is a law and advocacy organization based in Delhi that aspires for every woman and child especially from economically weak section of the society that comes forward about sexual violence to have an advocate who pursues justice on their behalf and has access to compassionate and effective justice systems.
We are associated with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur for advocacy and implementation of their Project Umbrella, a toolkit (train the teacher module) on child sexual abuse.
Endzone (http://www.endzone.co.in), a fitness consultancy firm that specializes in self defense workshops/ trainings for minors and adults, especially girls is our partner for the skill building workshops for students.
Besides, we are also exploring various support possibilities for the project CACA with various organizations working in this field like National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development – NIPCCD (http://www.nipccd.nic.in); National Commission for Child Protection Rights – NCPCR (http://www.ncpcr.gov.in), etc.

To begin with, Project CACA focuses on creating awareness, skill development, and dialogue initiation amongst the three primary stakeholders – the children, the parents, and the teachers on the subject of child sexual abuse through books. Infirst phase of circulation, these books are in English language and are available for circulation in private Schools across India. Soon they are to be translated in various Indian regional languages.