Appreciated by the police brass, the programme has now been taken up by the state police for implementation across the state. (PTI)AN online awareness project by Amravati Rural police on legal protection against sexual offences against children has been taken up by the Maharashtra police for implementation across the state.
Conceived by Superintendent of Police, Amravati (Rural), Hari Balaji, the project was implemented in the areas covered by police stations at Paratwada, Anjangaon (Surji), Warud, Dattapur, Daryapur and Teosa between September 8 and October 30, covering over 20,000 students from 23 schools studying in fifth to tenth class.
“We organised webinars for the students, where they were initially given a question paper to check their awareness about the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. It was followed by an interactive online awareness session about the provisions of the Act. We then asked them to answer another question paper to find out if the awareness programme helped increase their understanding. The results were very encouraging. Before the awareness session, they scored 55 per cent on an average but after it the average score rose to 85 per cent,” Balaji told The Indian Express.
He added: “The whole session would last about 45 minutes, during which a 20-minute video explaining the provisions of the POCSO Act would be played out. We also gave prizes to top scorers and chocolates to others.”
“Interestingly, a similar programme was taken for journalists in Amravati — as part of the press briefing about the programme — where the initial and final scores were not much different,” Balaji said.
Appreciated by the police brass, the programme has now been taken up by the state police for implementation across the state. Balaji said, “We are going to undertake similar awareness campaigns for students about other Acts like those concerning women’s issues like dowry, sexual exploitation and abuse, domestic violence, acid attacks, immoral trafficking, Preoccupation and Parental Diagnostic Techniques Act, Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, IT and other cyber crime Acts, Motor Vehicles Act, etc.”