Jamshedpur: People for Change, an NGO, organized a workshop for girls and women in the city to train them for self-defence in situations of eve-teasing and other forms of crimes.
The workshop was attended by girls from classes 9 to 12. “Each and every day that girls and women in our city step out of their houses to go to their schools, colleges and workplaces they are increasingly at risk of having their basic rights as a human being violated by all kinds of sexual violence. It is high time that women begin to feel safe by depending on their own self to defend themselves,� said Souvik Saha, founder of People for Change.
The workshop training involves the evolution of a girls and women from a passive victim into a strong capable individual who can control her own life. It is planned in a perspective that not only deals with the physical safety but the mental and emotional safety.
�In today’s India more than ever there is an increasing need for women to learn to connect with their inner strength and to understand that they need to stand up to their aggressors and defend themselves when faced with a situations of eve teasing ,unwanted physical contact, molestation and sexual assault,� said Saha.
In the workshops not only girls and women learn to protect themselves and also learn how to recognize potentially dangerous situations early on, how to respond verbally effectively when harassed, become aware of personal boundaries, problem solve together on how to stay safe and get out of (inner) victim mode.
The activities at the workshop included role-playing, where participants were divided into teams of two, with one woman acting as the harasser and the other as the harassed. Other activities include breaking a tile with a swift motion of the hand, body mapping and identifying aggressors.
