‘Bharat Yatra’ against child abuse reaches Madurai

The yatra was flagged off by Nobel laureate, Kailash Satyarthi, and Union Minister, Pon Radhakrishnan, at Kanniyakumari on September 11.The 45-day campaign would end on October 16 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

At Madurai, the campaign was led by Rahul Shrawat, MD, Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation. Madurai Collector, K Veera Raghav Rao, was the special guest for the event. CII-Young India also expressed its support for the campaign.

The Collector, in his address said that Madurai district administration had been taking lots of efforts to curb abuse and violence against children through District Child Protection Unit (DCPU). All the stakeholders including policemen and school van drivers were given sensitisation training and capacity building training.

“Child offenders and abusers have been strictly dealt with and action has been taken against them under the POCSO Act,” said the Collector. “In 2016, 99 cases had been filed against child offenders and so far in 2017, 73 cases had been filed”, said the Collector.

He also said that though there are 5.22 lakh children in 2,135 schools in Madurai district not all students are subjected to sexual abuse but however even if a single case of child abuse is reported it is a black mark for the entire society. The minds of the offenders should be tuned and such maladies against children stopped completely, said the Collector.

Rahul Shrawat, in his address, said that according to government data eight children go missing per hour and two children are raped every hour in India. Children should be thought about good and bad touches and the child offenders should be punished more strictly. It should be also be remembered that boys are also equally abused, said Shrawat.

Following the address, a pledge against child abuse and child trafficking was administered and volunteers, mostly college students, formed a human chain around Vandiyur Mariamman Teppakulam in Madurai. Also a set of bikers who are also with the mission of ‘Safe Childhood- Safe India’ reached Madurai along with the ‘Bharat Yatra’ mission.