In this guest blog post, Dr. Manjeer Mukherjee describes the rigorous child protection policies at Arpan, where she is senior program officer. Arpan, a GFC grantee partner located in Mumbai, empowers communities with abuse prevention skills to reduce child sexual abuse, and works with survivors of sexual abuse to help them heal, both physically and psychologically.
Written by Dr. Manjeer Mukherjee, Senior Program Manager, Arpan
Protecting children and promoting their welfare is a collective social responsibility. Child protection entails creating child-centric mechanisms for keeping children safe and giving them the help they need when they most need it.
At Arpan, this translates to fostering a trusting relationship between children and adults as a means to provide children with information and knowledge about their rights, empowering them to make their own choices, and ensuring that they have a voice in decisions that affect them. It also means creating an environment where all children are cared for; where more vulnerable children are identified; where children feel safe sharing any experience of child abuse, as they will be supported unconditionally; and where further harm to children is prevented.
Child protection, then, is not simply about creating an environment that minimizes risk or danger. Rather, it is about building an environment that is both safe and friendly and where children feel respected, valued, and encouraged to reach their full potential.
The fulfillment of every child’s right to protection can become a reality when each individual not only understands and respects his or her duty to children but also acts upon it. Thus, the rights of children are paramount at Arpan, both in its operation and in its program. At Arpan, ensuring the rights of children includes providing safe spaces, such as individual sessions after the class-based abuse prevention modules, so that children are able to express any experience of child sexual abuse and seek support.
Supporting child rights at Arpan also means that the children have their views given due weight in all matters affecting them. In the case of counseling sessions with children after the disclosure of child sexual abuse, counselors connect with parents only after gaining consent from the children. If children do not consent, counselors provide them with varied avenues to reach out to their parents until they are comfortable doing so.
Arpan’s program content acknowledges and addresses the diversity of children’s lived realities by incorporating examples and stories from varied locales so that all children can relate to, and identify with, the content. Children are never discriminated against on the basis of their socioeconomic standing, as Arpan conducts the prevention program with children from across socioeconomic lines.
Hi Deborah, when it comes to children I agree that it's more than providing a safe environment, it's also providing a welcoming and friendly environment so that children are exposed to a positive learning environment. Thanks Deborah for the helpful information!
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