Category Archive

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/

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.

Thinking about the Government’s recent wake-up call to Sex Education pulls me backwards to this event at Oxford Bookstore which we hosted way back in the summer of 2005.

Dr.Sibnath Deb and Brother Brendan MacCarthaigh attended and provided some valuable input on the past and present statistics of abuse and incest in India and abroad.

The latter speaker’s statements and crackling sense of humor educated and entertained while Dr.Deb’s statistics roused verbal violence in the form of audience members wishing to inflict extreme physical pain on offenders. I recall being asked to speak but felt no need to, owing to the chemistry between the speakers and the spoken with (not to, mind you!).

Here’s the URL , please ignore the photograph - http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050514/asp/calcutta/story_4735420.asp

Three examples of why online safety is recommended.

1 , 2 , 3 .

The aforementioned examples, although of cases not based in India, could very well be in India soon. As a matter of fact, they are occuring in local schools without the knowledge of parents and teachers.

A few years ago, a young student of St. *’s School, Kolkata, began meeting middle-aged men whom he discovered via online chat rooms. The men would meet him at his home, or theirs, and sexually abuse him.
A friend intervened and claimed to have “cured” him of his “homosexuality” and the matter was closed. The boy, now a confused young man, is unsure of his future and is reported to be scouting around online for the only solace he knows.

A young girl who had previously lived in a repressed social atmosphere, discovered freedom over the internet for the first time. She began communicating with a vengeance, “making friends” with everybody and even posting her personal cellphone number with semi-nude photographs on her online profile. It wasn’t long before she began receiving solicitations that went beyond coffee invitations.

There are so many cases, all in India. Unless the media and society wake up to the fact that it does happen to their own people in this very country, it will continue to be a sad, repressed, pressure-cooker like existence for these victims of online sexual abuse who’s fate and post-abuse trauma is similar to those who face regular abuse.

When ?

Yesterday

There’s nothing remotely new or shocking about the concept of teachers taking advantage of students.

You might want to educate yourself to the fact that some students try taking advantage of teachers as well.

Teachers have crushes on students and vice versa (Dylan anyone?)..

Murshidabad URL - http://telegraphindia.com/1071108/asp/bengal/story_8525018.asp

Orkut has been duly updated for comments and input.

I recall a particularly handsome male tutor-slash-musician-slash-relative whom i never crushed on personally (too old), but my friends went nuts over him like he was Jim Morrison. It was silly the way they’d queue up to go to his classes just to sit and stare at him while he taught ( he was a good teacher btw), some people even claimed that he reciprocated their emotions. Yuch.

Then there was another female tutor. Lord help anyone who got on the wrong side of her at any time of the day. She gave “volatile” a new dimension altogether, but for money and male students, it was all toned down to a degree that although there wasn’t a free show on in front of your face, you just knew something was wrong.

There’s a teacher at a famously “vigilant” college who is famed for more than his erm, educational prowness. Everyone knows. The girls blog and write odes to him quite shamelessly.
There’s another teacher at the same college who has a reputation for a little more than just odes on a blog by a student. No matter how many insults i get for writing this, i will do so - student-teacher abuse.

When are student-teacher relationships non-abusive ?

For one, when both are adults! Preferably when they are not in that uncomfortable hierarchy of “me teacher, you student” and that creates an automatic imbalance in the relationship, like it or not. Keeping it out of the classroom would help.

The team was awoken from it’s mid-week stupor by a group of young (ok not-so-young!) video bloggers from Channel [V] Mumbai.

The team was in the city, shooting for a documentary series titled “My India Report” or MIR, which is on air from November [Thursdays 7:30pm only on Channel [v]!!].
URL : www.myindiareport.in

What interested us about the concept was -

Youth-to-youth interaction
Free speech (ah!)
Current issues in focus
Common target groups

Pujarini, Shreya, Rohit, Vijay and yours truly responded to the team’s intelligent questions and at points, i think we developed a heightened respect for each other’s self-confidence, esp’ Pujarini’s “virginity” response!

Credit goes to the [V] team for asking offbeat questions on Sex education and allowing us to speak freely on relevant topics such as CSA, Incest, Law and CSA, Virginity, Sex, Marriage, Politics, Education and a plethora of other matters that DO affect our generation.

Azhar wrote a lovely account of his experience in Kolkata here - http://www.myindiareport.in/2007/09/21/sexual-abuse-hiv-and-the-city-of-joy

We’re waiting for the first Kolkata episode of MIR now, and are hoping fervently, that we haven’t messed up!

Thank you to Azhar and the Channel [V] team for a memorable evening.

I am the FudgeQueen. I would prefer to be known just as that for now, till we are better acquainted. This blog will focus on providing consistent updates and informative essays on Child Sexual Abuse.

My group is called Elaan. We have been around since July 2004. We will be a registered NGO by January 2006. Till then the movement to spread awareness on Child Sexual Abuse is being spearheaded by me. Its tough but relevant.

What IS Child Sexual Abuse and why bother crying yourself hoarse over it when it’s about something that happened in the past ?

That’s a question that i have been asked by all and sundry. After tiring myself out with diplomatic responses, i feel that this, i.e. today, is the right time to set the record straight.

I have had personal experiences with facing abuse, and have been through hell with dealing with the aftermath of it. I see myself as a living example of a survivor who, after (finally) receiving support and love, is still not completely over it.

The aftermath is what is even more dangerous than the abuse itself.

As for the “what is”, you’re not stupid. You have the internet. Read This, and This too.

And if you havent had enough, there’s 1 , 2 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 8 , 9 , 10 .

NEWSFLASH

WHITE NOISE - THE CONCERT DEDICATED TO PROMOTING NEW MUSIC JUXTAPOSED WITH A RARELY ATTEMPTED ENDEAVOUR (CSA AWARENESS), IS HAPPENING ON
Thursday the 23rd of November
at Swabhumi - The Heritage Park from 5pm onwards.

Entry fee is only 10 bucks.

Performing artists -

CASSINI’S DIVISION - the gods of alt (:D)

HOOF HOOEY - passionate punk rockers

A-LIST - Ash,Ashwini,MKB, your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper.. check him out here

Thats all for now folks, comments welcome.