• Sensitize / mentor the youth in ethical values with an emphasis on good governance, transparency and accountability.

• RTI sessions to educate students, who, in turn, are expected to take the message to communities they live in.

• Sessions on Gender Sensitization in collaboration with Mumbai Police.

• Dialogues with eminent professionals from different fields emphasizing the need for professional ethics to serve the society with honesty and integrity.

• Citizen Policing Programme (CPP)

• Good Governance Campaign such as Road Safety Campaign

• Sexual Harassment, eve-teasing and emerging social concerns of the contemporary world.

• Co-ordination with the Mumbai Police to enforce the POCSO Act and other laws that protect women and children from Sexual Predators. Ms. Sonali Shelar is in charge of this new initiative.

1. Training of Teachers about Child Safety by Hon’ble Mr Yatin Game, Secretary of District Legal Service Authority, Mumbai Suburban and Dr. Harish Shetty, renowned psychologist on 23rd August 2020

2. Webinar - ‘Sexual Harassment of Children: Why We Need to Pay Attention Now!’ by Ms. Sonali Shelar, Human Rights Lawyer on 10th October 2020 (in collaboration with GLC)

3. Course for students- ‘One Day Certificate Training Course on POCSO Act & Judicial Procedure’ conducted by Hon’ble Mr. Vikramsingh Bhandari on 9th November 2020.

Focused awareness among the stakeholders of the safety of our children is a more effective way of prevention. The awareness programmes are in many cases limited to talking to children about their safety, teaching them to identify good touch and bad touch, body boundaries, etc. and while that is important, we believe it is not enough. They may understand all the details but these are children who cannot be responsible for their own breakfast or even cross the road by themselves, how can we expect them to protect themselves against sexual predators, or even approach their parents or teachers with an issue like this? They will only get the confidence to speak up and reach out to their parents, siblings, and teachers, if the latter are educated about child safety and regularly engage in healthy conversations with the child. Keeping this in mind, we decided to engage the stakeholders in a more focused manner.

The first batch of stakeholders we targeted were the teachers. On 23rd August, through Google Meet, a 100 principals and teachers participated in the training session in which they were taught methods of reporting under POCSO Act, informed about the updated judicial procedure by the Secretary of the District Legal Service Authority, Mumbai Suburban, MrYatin Game.

We also had renowned psychologist, Dr Harish Shetty who spoke to the educators about emotional well-being and how the mental health of parents and teachers can potentially affect the behaviour of the child which may not allow to come out with his/her experience of abuse. Dr Shetty guided them on the practices to follow to stay mentally healthy during the lockdown, discussed tools to ensure safety of their students, and how to converse with parents and students during the online school in a way that they can reach out to them in distress.

The second batch of stakeholders we targeted was the youth, two programmes were organised to raise awareness among college students:

• A webinar ‘Sexual Harassment of Children: Why We Need to Pay Attention Now!’ conducted by Ms Sonali Shelar, head of the Child Safety team, PCGT was organised in collaboration with Government Law College, Mumbai on 10th October. Provisions of POCSO Act, lack of implementation, and measures that can be taken by individual were discussed. The event saw a participation of 181 students.
• A ‘One Day Certificate Training Course’ on ‘POCSO Act &Judicial Procedure’ was organised on 9th November, conducted by Secretary of the District Legal Service Authority, Mumbai Suburban, Mr. Vikramsingh Bhandari. During the course, POCSO Rules, POCSO Act, victim centric amendments in CrPC, duties of police and medical professionals, and important judgements related to child safety were discussed. The total number of participants was 161.

At the end of both the programmes, participants were introduced to the upcoming Safety Volunteer programme in which volunteers will be trained about child safety by experts from legal field and various NGOs. The programme will conducted in January, so far 214 people have registered for the Safety Volunteer programme. We are in the process of getting other NGOs on board, so far we have collaborations with Aangan Trust, Rubaroo Foundation, and One Future Collective.

The third batch of stakeholders we plan to engage are the local authorities that are Mumbai police, CWC, and Children’s Home, the focus will be developing interdepartmental coordination and cooperation methods. This will be executed after successful completion of the Safety Volunteer Programme.

After getting sanction of funds of almost 2 lac rupees for the maintenance energy charges for the installation of street lights in 9 areas of Colaba, 29 spots that need street lights have been identified in 8 locations (namely Shivari, Dharavi, Cuffe Parade, Wadala TT, Antop Hill, Malwani, Airport area, and Shivaji Nagar) with the help of Aangan Trust. PCGT has studied the report (attached) and in October 2020 written to the BMC Commissioner, IAS Mr Iqbal Chahal to take up the installation of 172 light poles in the aforementioned areas that will significantly improve the safety of women and young girls.

• Regular counselling to the 4-year-old victim we assisted in March 2020 is continued, her behavioural changes are closely monitored along with her performance in studies and her overall interest in playing games, watching cartoons, etc. to identify signs of trauma or distress. Timely action and careful parenting by the mother of victim has so far kept her mentally healthy, she will be provided professional help if any signs are seen.
• PCGT is assisting a 15-year-old victim of rape by getting her compensation under Manodhariya Scheme. We are also closely following the case to make sure that the accused who is a family member does not get bail as that will be problematic for the mother. The victim is in the care of the State at Children’s Home, Dongri.

  • Leadership Programmes - young people organize Talks, Conclaves, Seminars, Webinars, Mock Parliaments after selecting the subject of the talk and the speaker who they would like to hear. The young students organize the events themselves in order to build their confidence and hone their leadership skills. Our staff member in charge of these programmes, Shivam Jain Kakadia, has succeeded in motivating hundreds of students to participate in these Leadership Programmes through the N.Y.P. (National Youth Parliament) and Campus Ambassadors initiatives.