Child abuse is more than bruises and broken bones. A workshop was conducted by Ms. Jyothi N. Belwadi, Ms. Jagmeet kaur, Ms.Prabhjot Kaur to create awareness about Child Abuse for teachers in the school premises of St Joseph’s Sr Sec School, Sec 44-D Chandigarh. Physical abuse might be the most visible type of abuse but other types of abuse such as emotional abuse, neglect, exploitation also leave deep, lasting scars on the mind of the child. The earlier, abused children get help, the greater chance they have to heal and break the cycle.
The teachers learnt about common signs of abuse, the kind of abusers and how a teacher’s intervention and care can make a huge difference in a child’s life.
Ignoring children’s needs, putting them in unsupervised, dangerous situations or making them feel guilty add to increase in child abuse. Regardless of the type of abuse, the result is serious and causes emotional harm on the overall development of the child. The workshop also highlighted the role of teachers in educating and training the students to face the challenges of child abuse,
Being patient, good listeners and not ignoring any behavioural or sudden academic changes can be of great help for children and for identifying and protecting a child from abuse.
Many shocking incidents of child abuse were revealed which left a deep impact on the minds of the teachers. It was a wakeup call for the teachers to actively notice and reports any such cases in future.
The teachers were informed about the helpline numbers, apps and the POCSO E box which came in handy to deal with such problems.
The Principal Ms. Monica Chawla expressed deep concern and requested the teachers to join hands to eradicate this evil from the society so that new generation can face the society fearlessly and lead a life with great self respect.
She concluded by saying that if the teachers become an epitome of love and affection for their students it would help the students to break the shackles of the cruel stigma.
