“Awareness allows us to get outside of our mind and observe it in action.”

Every human has four endowments – self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom. The power to choose, to respond and to change.

The NSS Unit at Sahyog Pratishthan’s Sahyog College of Management Studies, Thane conducted a seminar on ‘POCSO Act’ on 10^th September, 2022 in collaboration with SNEHA Foundation, an NGO focusing on to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity, child malnutrition, reduce adolescent anemia and gender-based violence.

The speakers for the seminar were Ms. Vandana Patil a Clinical Psychologist and Ms. Reshma Jagtap an Associate Advocate working for SNEHA Foundation. The seminar consisted of 40 NSS students.

Before familiarizing students about POCSO Act Ms. Reshma Jagtap classified who is a child. Further she helped students understand the word sexual abuse and the various forms of child abuse. Later, she familiarized students with the various Acts under POCSO 2012. Ms. Vandana Patil made students aware about the psychological effect that the children suffered due to abuse. Further they gave more insights about child abuse through various real life cases. Moreover, they defined good touch and bad touch. In the end, students were shown a short clip of Satyamaev Jayate about a women who suffered sexual abuse when she was 15 years old.

By the end of the seminar, the students were well aware of the preventive measures required to be taken, thereby encouraging them to raise voice for a safer world where the children can be protected from the sexual and other forms of abuse. The session laid a deep impact on the mindset of the volunteers as they were sensitized about this critical issue.