Along bumpy roads, spreading the good word about child safety and education

NEW DELHI: Rana Uppalapati had put on his roller skates to make children aware about ‘good touch and bad touch’ even before the #MeToo campaign had started to catch the country’s imagination.

An international skater and a business associate of Tata’s Titan group, Rana Uppalapati, began skating across the golden quadrilateral to raise funds for the education of 25,000 underprivileged girl children and to create awareness among children on the issue of child safety, especially on ‘good touch and bad touch’.

He likes to underplay his own brush with harassment as a young school-goer, but it is one of the reasons why Uppalapati is a strong advocate of the need to educate children about staying safe and what attributes a good and bad touch. “The idea was to talk not just about educating the girl child but also to educate children, both boys and girls, on their physical safety. Data shows that more boys are sexually harassed than young girls. My aim, through this initiative, is to speak to the children, their parents as well as care givers and to make them aware.”

In undertaking his task, Uppalapati has institutional help. Titan Company Limited has collaborated with the Tata Group and the international skater to cover the Golden Quadrilateral over 90 days, halting in villages, towns and cities to spread awareness.

The campaign also has the backing of organisations like KC Mahindra Educational Trust Mumbai, IIMPact, Delhi to whom the funds will be disbursed and which have partnered with Titan in their programme of remedial education of the girl child. Titan has also associated with CII-Young Indians and their Project Masoom for building training programmes on child safety and will hold 6000 awareness sessions for children on ‘Good Touch and Bad Touch’ as a part of their ECHO programme.

The 6000 km journey that began in Hosur has is now nearing its halfway mark and has travelled through Maharashtra, Gujarat and the national capital to collect funds to support the education of over 5000 girl children. Head, Corporate Sustainability, NE Sridhar said, “At Titan, we always look forward to help the underprivileged and Educate to Carry Her Onwards (ECHO) is a noble way to help in girl child education. This is one of our many endeavours to nurture and nourish the society we have grown in."