The Bloggeratti Contest – and a little history

Orkut.com was the first social networking site we joined as an organisation, in a bid to reach out to an internet-savvy target group. That was December 3rd 2006, a time when horrifying things [Nithari/Scarlett Keeling] were yet to shake the general public out of it’s denial of the existence of CSA in Indian society.The Elaan-Combat Child Sexual Abuse community had 100 members within 3 days of its creation.

Today we are 964 members strong and have successfully collaborated with the owner of another community “Bloggeratti” and have concluded a themed poetry writing contest with the theme being “Child Abuse”. 

It is our pleasure to present the winner of the contest, Pali Tripathi =) 

This is her winning entry titled “Bread.Pieces”

Bread. Pieces

Bread. Pieces. Stale 
Spoon. Stained. Half 
Plate. Broken.One 
Pan.Dry. Empty 
Table. Brown. Dirty 
Door. Bell. Footsteps 
Silence. Fear. Apprehension 
Man. Thin. Tatters 
Eyes. Cold. Piercing 
Gazes. Afraid. Numb 
Sound. Loud. Harsh 
Child. Tears. Gurgle 
Bread. Pieces. Gone 
Faces. White. Wounded 
Mouths. Pained. Dry 
Door. Shut. Bang 
Father. Drunk. Asleep 
Mother. Deaf. Diseased 
Children. Dumb. Broken 
Life. Limp. Lost 
Love. Desired. Denied.

A special mention for this poem, which was a late entry, but made an impact on us all the same.

Helpless Tears

Gentle shower
Each drop trickling
From the white clouds
Each drop holds
Countless memories in its fold
As one goes down the next gets ready..
Glittering like a pearl
emerging with a blink
Leaving trails

Tears…
tears of blood
soon mingles with mud
swept away afar
Leaving indiscernable scar

Read the rest of this poem here..

ALL the poems tackled some aspect of Child Abuse and related abuse. Some contestants disclosed a personal experience while others empathized with the sadness, confusion, anger and helplessness of a young survivor of abuse. 

To be honest, it took us a few extra days to reach a conclusion ! 

We plan on releasing a little book of poems by the same community members as part of the performance arts based awareness campaign. 

Thank you Chris, and the Bloggeratti members ! 

World Day For the Prevention of Child Abuse – Nov 19th 2008

How many children, INDIAN children at that, are aware that they have rights ? 

Does the under-aged boy working at that tea-stall near your office know that child labour is illegal ? Does his employer know that ? 

 

How old is the “young” looking domestic help who cleans your house and washes your dishes ? Does she go to school ?

How many of us have been witnesses to incidents of child abuse and haven’t done anything about it ? 

You know, the young urchin who got beaten up for sitting outside a shop and “obstructing the view” of potential customers ? 

Or the little girl who was slapped by a pedestrian for bumping into her pristine white sari ? 

“These things happen”, you say. 

Reverse the faces on these photographs. Place yourself in the lives of these children. 

Life is harder for them than you would ever imagine humanly possible. 

Child Sexual Abuse is a regular occurence with these children [*this is to say that they belong to a high vulnerability level*]. The picture below is self-explanatory. 

Here are a few Articles from the Convention on the Rights of the Child , as adopted by young students in an American school:

Here’s a little background, courtesy UNICEF’s website 

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights—civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. In 1989, world leaders decided that children needed a special convention just for them because people under 18 years old often need special care and protection that adults do not. The leaders also wanted to make sure that the world recognized that children have human rights too.

Article 1

For the purposes of the present Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.

 

Article 6

1. States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life.

2. States Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child.

 

Article 19

1. States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.

2. Such protective measures should, as appropriate, include effective procedures for the establishment of social programmes to provide necessary support for the child and for those who have the care of the child, as well as for other forms of prevention and for identification, reporting, referral, investigation, treatment and follow-up of instances of child maltreatment described heretofore, and, as appropriate, for judicial involvement.

 

Article 28

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:

(a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all;

(b) Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, make them available and accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need;

(c) Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means;

(d) Make educational and vocational information and guidance available and accessible to all children;

(e) Take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of drop-out rates.

2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that school discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the child’s human dignity and in conformity with the present Convention.

3. States Parties shall promote and encourage international cooperation in matters relating to education, in particular with a view to contributing to the elimination of ignorance and illiteracy throughout the world and facilitating access to scientific and technical knowledge and modern teaching methods. In this regard, particular account shall be taken of the needs of developing countries.

 

Article 32

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.

2. States Parties shall take legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to ensure the implementation of the present article. To this end, and having regard to the relevant provisions of other international instruments, States Parties shall in particular:

(a) Provide for a minimum age or minimum ages for admission to employment;

(b) Provide for appropriate regulation of the hours and conditions of employment;

(c) Provide for appropriate penalties or other sanctions to ensure the effective enforcement of the present article.

 

Article 33

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislative, administrative, social and educational measures, to protect children from the illicit use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances as defined in the relevant international treaties, and to prevent the use of children in the illicit production and trafficking of such substances.

 

How many rights do the children in the picture below have ?

The pictures represent the truth.

A truth that needs to be changed.

Thank you

If i were asked to demarcate my life, id slice it into two neat little halves, like an apple. Both sides would look alike and taste the same but they sure as heck wouldn’t be the same anymore if you peeled the skin off.

Beneath the surface are two “me’s” ; the one before Barbados, and the one after.

 

Tori [Amos] and Shannon walked into my life virtually one afternoon while i was browsing through the then-new “world wide web”. I don’t quite recall how it happened, or what possessed me to visit this site, but i did. It changed my life forever. 

www.welcometobarbados.org is the site that kept me stuck to my seat for an entire day, and the next too. People whom i didn’t know shared stories of rape, childhood sexual abuse, incest, date rape, gang rape, sodomy, college initiations gone wrong, and other experiences of violence too horrible to even think of, let alone endure. 

I began to shake uncontrollably, tears spilled out of my eyes non-stop, and i reached for the shard of glass by my desk [i was a self-mutilator then, but have recovered since]. I stopped. 

I dared to hope. I dared to think, that i, an insignificant, non-descript little girl from a city in India, could and would survive the trauma of sexual abuse and would fight the forces that prevented victims of sexual trauma from wriggling out of their societal cocoons. 

Tori helped. Shannon helped. A friend from an online forum provided support for the times when i thought it was pointless. 

I wouldn’t be where i am without them, and a few others. 

These photographs and this post is a tribute to Tori and the super survivors.

Opinion – Take action against childhood sexual abuse

Recent news stories about sexual abuse of children in Alexandria and elsewhere should do more than make us disgusted and angry.
It should make us act.

Consider something that happened in Duluth about a year ago: A 70-year-old man was arrested for sexually abusing a 7-year-old girl who was being cared for at a child care business run by the man and his wife.
When an investigator asked the man, “Why a child?” The man replied, “Because it’s easy.”

Sadly, statistics indicate just how “easy” it is: More than 39,000 sexual assaults are estimated to be committed each year in Minnesota — the majority against children. One in four girls and one in six boys will have been abused by the age of 18. Some estimates put the number of childhood sexual abuse survivors in America at 39 million.

But there are things a community and families can do to make it harder for individuals to sexually abuse children. Ted Thompson, executive director of the National Association to Prevent Sexual Abuse of Children, offered this advice in a Prevent Child Abuse Minnesota newsletter:

• We can make prevention of childhood sexual abuse a public policy priority. We can call legislators and prosecutors to express outrage at abuse. It would greatly enhance our ability to expose offenders if we would eliminate statutes of limitations, both criminal and civil, for the sexual abuse of children.

• We can educate our communities. People need to know that sexual abuse of children by someone known to the child is exceedingly more likely to happen than the more high-profile, but rarer, stranger-abduction and rape.

• We can come forward and address abuse we know about or suspect. It is likely in most cases that someone knows abuse is happening and needs to have the courage to come forward. Because sexual abuse is often perpetrated by people we know, this can be difficult.

• We can improve our ability to educate families and professionals to prevent as well as recognize, report and respond to abuse. We need to provide model curriculum to prepare professionals to recognize abuse; and understand that factors such as substance abuse, poverty and unemployment can significantly contribute to the risk of children being sexually abused.

• Parents can communicate with their children every day. We can teach children that sexual advances from anyone, including other family members, are not OK, and also teach them how to conduct themselves in sexually appropriate ways with others.

A New Year’s Resolution

I will NOT let ignorance take priority over healing and justice.

Indian Express Report on WAD

There are three reports in total , of which we have one. The articles required are from The Telegraph and The Indian Express

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/All-for-a-Cause/246569/

The Team at Star Theatre On WAD 2007

World AIDS Day

Elaan, in partership with SAATHII mehendi-tattooed and quized it’s way through WAD 2007 at Star Theatre this evening.

Participating NGO’s – SAATHII (they conceptualized the event and laid the foundation with Priya Entertainment), Elaan ( with CSA at the forefront of all activities ), Diksha (an organization that works with the children of sex workers) and SPARSH, an organization which works with positive patients (apologies if i am mistaken)

Venue – Star Theatre rooftop amidst visitors and a foodpark

Duration – 6:30 to 8:15pm

Elaan’s participation included – Overall documentation, The 20 question AIDS quiz with assistance from SPARSH and Mehendi tattoos for everyone ( keeps the AIDS ribbon on for longer).

Participants from Elaan : Pranaadhika, Mirna, Vijay, Madhurima, Mansi, Debolina, Abhinandan, Shreya, Bidisha and Chhandak ( who isn’t officially a part of Elaan yet but will be).

Invisible participation from photographer and uncle Vivek Devburman who wasn’t able to attend owing to an injury, but his camera made it.

Highlights : Souvik as Lola (a much “slimmer,sexier,cuter, more romantic” Bula di) and his assistant in his many avatars / Mirna’s beautiful “my brother nikhil” medley” and the sporting people who allowed us to (mehendi) tattoo them with AIDS awareness messages and their own NGO names. I have reason to believe that the latter option was rather popular !

Lowlights : The audience wasn’t particularly delighted at the concept, despite our best efforts. However, not to be dampened, the participants themselves went out of their way to involve the handful that were interested during the quiz and Souvik/Lola had everyone in splits with their one-liners. The lighting could have been better as it was an evening event. Kolkata shone and Kolkata froze us out.

The important thing is, we did not back down from our individual messages. Homosexuality, Child Sexual Abuse, “jonno” (the bangla word for sex) were all mentioned as part of the programme and that gave us all a lot of satisfaction.

CSR or not, my good sirs, you may NOT stifle our Constitutional right to free speech.

Special mention : The kids representing Diksha were Stupendous. Mindblowing.

Photographs are huge (file size), will upload later. More discussion/feedback on the orkut community.

Manitoba to introduce mandatory reporting of child pornography

The province of Manitoba will today bring forward the first legislation of its kind in Canada to compel all citizens, including computer technicians and Internet service providers, to report any images or examples of child pornography.
The initiative is being introduced as an amendment to the province’s Child and Family Services legislation by minister Gord MacIntosh and will expand the definition of child abuse, which already has a mandatory reporting law, to include child pornography.
“Under the new law, if someone comes across something they believe to be child pornography they have a duty to report it to Cybertip.ca,” said Lianna McDonald , director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, the registered charity that runs the Cybertip website.
The penalty for failing to report will be up to two years in jail and a $50,000 fine, Ms. McDonald said. It’s the same penalty for those who don’t report child abuse, although Ms. McDonald said she doesn’t know of any instances where that provision has led to a prosecution.
“What it means is that under the proposed legislation, [citizens] have a legal responsibility,” she said. “The idea is to facilitate reporting.”
Ms. McDonald said that making it a legal requirement might remove some of the moral qualms that exist for those who find images of abuse on a computer, for example, and might be concerned about violating someone’s privacy.
“It certainly will facilitate things for people thinking, ‘Should I or shouldn’t I report?’ It makes it clear. For companies that repair computers, it’s clear they have a duty to report,” she said.
The proposed law could have significant implications for Internet service providers, according to Roz Prober of Beyond Borders, an organization that advocates for the protection of children.
It’s already mandatory in the United States for Internet service providers to report instances of child pornography, but the issue has not been tackled in Canada until now.
“The foot-draggers in this scenario are the Internet service providers,” Ms. Prober said. “In the U.S. they can be heavily fined [for not reporting child porn] and I think that’s the way to go here.”
Ms. Prober said she hasn’t seen the proposed legislation but expects it to be comprehensive.
Citizens will be directed to report their suspicions to the Cybertip.ca website. The site receives funding from the federal Department of Public Safety and from Manitoba Justice, Ms. McDonald said, and since 2005 it has acted as a national clearinghouse for all Internet child sexual-abuse reporting. In that time, it has received more than 25,000 reports from the public.
Ms. Prober said the site is very sophisticated and secure and would be able to resist attempts to infiltrate its database.
She said it’s important the public pass on as many tips as possible because each new image allows police to narrow in on the victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse

URL – http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071128.wmanitoba28/BNStory/National/home/

Do visit the website and have a look through the comments section. I find that most insightful, more than the article actually !

Adivasi Girl stripped – and everyone took photographs (?!)

Ongoing discussion – http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=24455884&tid=2568922879391121981&na=4

A young Adivasi girl was stripped and photographed running for protection as onlookers whipped out their ever-handy camera phones and took photographs, videos and mms clips.. another sign of technology at it’s mis-used best.

One wouldn’t consider this as Sexual Abuse really.

Look again.

Publicly exposing a young girl – she was completely naked.
The onlookers did not have good intentions on their minds when they were taking those photographs.

Further information -

We do not have concrete proof of this yet but it is alleged that the girl was sexually assaulted. Given the circumstances, it is not impossible.

Shame on whoever is responsible for this. We refuse to upload the currently available photograph of the girl for reasons of journalistic integrity.

It is unfortunate that even the most widely-circulated Kolkata daily, “The Telegraph” did not blur out her face, even though it blur out her personal body parts.