“I always knew that Child Sexual Abuse was a complex issue in Tricity, but it was and it still is a huge problem.” says the Founder of Bachpan Save The Innocence (BSTI), Rahul Singla. We are here to tell you all about how our organization, BSTI, impacted Tricity to date. We’ve come a great way and today, here we are, sharing all of it with you!

Child Sexual Abuse In Tricity (A neglected issue)

Getting it directly from the Founder- “In January 2020, I was amazed to see that there was not a single organization working on child sexual abuse in tricity. I always knew that it was a complex issue, but it was and it still is a huge problem. The main concern in Panchkula was Team Building due to the lack of college institutions here, and I did not have any major connections in the colleges of Chandigarh. So, how was I going to build a team on such a cause, which has been unheard of and unexplored?

Without giving a second thought, I started conducting workshops on my own in schools and temples in Panchkula itself, but this seemed to be a shortsighted plan.”

“Slowly I started to approach PEC college and I got an opportunity to meet 3-4 NSS volunteers. I convinced them to work with us. At that time, we were a non-registered volunteer organization. And as our work was progressing, unfortunately, the world faced the COVID-19 outbreak, and we were not able to conduct any workshops on child sexual abuse in Tricity, for almost 2 months (April to June).

But we couldn’t stop here, we called 100 schools for free workshops, but we faced direct rejections with a statement ‘You are all very young people, how can you conduct such insensitive workshops?’ We finally started conducting open workshops where any child can participate, and I remember our first online workshop had only 2 children and the team was quite demotivated.”

A Silver Lining: How things got better

Giving up was never an option. Cases of Child Sexual Abuse in Tricity and outside were rising phenomenally. We pitched more and more schools daily. We finally started getting approvals from various schools to conduct workshops. The best part about online workshops was that we could conduct workshops in PAN INDIA and our team also had volunteers from all over the country. During COVID-19, when most people felt restricted from staying at home, we felt like we were finally expanding our reach all over India. We were now having a team of lawyers, psychologists, engineers, and other professional backgrounds.

Our Impact on child sexual abuse in Tricity

In the year 2020, we only had 2 workshops – Safe/Unsafe touch and Consent. We had sensitized around 2000 children. Our team was growing and we conducted more and more worshops.

1. Today, we have 14 different workshops, each being a 4 hour program. 
2. We have sensitized over 19,000 stakeholders through 360+ workshops. 
3. Our stakeholders include children, parents, teachers, medical professionals and law students.
4. We have various support groups which connect 80+ child sexual abuse survivors.
5. During the workshops, around 80 children have shared their stories with us and we have provided counseling and any help that was required.
6. We have over 30 Letters of Recommendation from different institutions where we delivered our sessions. 

Our Sensistisation Programs

Newsletters featuring us

Numerous media featuring our work about child sexual abuse in Tricity!

1. Dainik Savera
2. News18 Punjab
3. Famous Punjab TV
4. Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal
5. Punjab Today
6. The Logical Indian

Our Upcoming goals

1. We are planning to introduce the first ever offline support groups for survivors of child sexual abuse in Tricity, and they will be operational in 2023. 
2. We are planning to conduct workshops for parents and teachers on child sexual abuse in Tricity and Delhi. 
3. We are expanding our YouTube and Instagram Platforms.
4. We are working on development of Sexuality and Gender Identity Workshops.
5. We are introducing stickers and comic books for children.
6. We are signing MOUs with atleast 15 psychologist this year.

A big THANK YOU!

We still have a long way to go, and it is still a difficult issue to be dealing with. Till date, there is no other organization working on prevention of child sexual abuse in Tricity, which pushes us even more to strive harder. The Bachpan team puts the best of their skills to fulfill the purpose of the organization. We gratefully appreciate the supporters, the schools that gave us the approvals, each member of our Bachpan team, and all those people who are connected to Bachpan in some or the other manner.