The Rakshin Project

Description

The Ministry of Youth Affairs has directed Sakshi to deliver capacity-building workshops in partnership with NSS with their volunteers to strengthen Youth as powerful enablers for creating a Constitutional Rights-Based Enabled Environment in the context of Gender Equality with a focus on building awareness about POCSOA 2012.

Under the Equality Umbrella, the workshop with the NSS volunteers will include –

1. Awareness Sessions on rights and responsibilities for Gender Equality, &
2. Orientations and Capacity Building for compliance of POCSOA 2012.

In the spirit of active citizenship, these informed NSS volunteers, Champions of Change, in keeping with their Constitutional Right to Equality, will be enabled to practice their role and responsibility as an informed active citizen versus the apathy of an ignorant, passive bystander.

At the end of these sessions, the NSS POCSOA Champions will be equipped with –

1. the capacity to prevent, prohibit and intervene in instances of sexual offenses against children.
2. If any of them have been subjected personally, they will be guided towards tools that resolve and heal the residue PTSD.
3. These Champions will be sufficiently exposed to the punitive actions ensuing to the offense, as well as the impact of sexual offences on the victims in order to create a prohibitive mindset towards any probable offense.

Mandatory Action:

Offline Training program will be rolled out in the 20 Regions in which the NSS is operative in 40,000 institutions, touching 40 Lakh students every two years.

Proposed Action:

After the offline workshop, the students will be shared a link to a landing page with messages from iconic leaders and celebrities. There will be an inquiry board, where the students will be encouraged to continue the conversation through a creative rendition of their thoughts. It could be films, avs, songs, stories, graphics, posters, comic strips. These entries will be filtered by a skilled team. The cleaned entries will be sent back to the students. There will be a vetted team of counselors and legal advisories made available to the students on a pro bon basis, where and when required.

PHASE ONE : PROJECT DESIGN & TIMELINES

A pre-pilot phase conducted in 7 cities, 3 states in 12 NSS units reaching 900 volunteers. Learning from this exercise has informed the design of the 1st phase.

The engagement with the NSS volunteers will follow a three-pronged approach to Attain, Retain and Sustain
the involvement of NSS cadets and their peers in creating safe spaces for children and preventing CSA.

The building blocks for the training and ongoing engagement for the NSS volunteers will include:
•     Interactive Workshop: Incorporating technology into learning via the workshop by making use of interactive films, music, engagement tools, app and digital forms
•     Website: Creating an extensive guide on the subject with easy access to information and redressal mechanisms, encouraging reach out.
•     Mobile Application: Content Dissemination, Redressal Platform & Engagement Tool for Sustained Impact.

The mandatory training will be conducted by 3 trainers per workshop, who will be trained prior to the mandatory workshops in the NSS units.

PHASE ONE: METHODOLOGY FOR ROLL-OUT (1 YEAR)

PRE-PILOT PREPARATION

• Design of the Programme crafted.
• Alliance building with Third Parties for Legal Aid, OnGround Support,Counselling, Implementation and Analysis; Partners for Delivery identified and aligned.
• Content for the workshop detailed, iterated and tested.
• Methodology for workshops roll out tested.
• Standard Operating Procedures and Processes for Pilot roll out detailed.

PILOT PREPARATION : MONTHS 1-3

• Content development (manuals, hand-outs, pre post evaluations, Films and other Audio-Visual material): Training manuals shall be prepared (Hindi and English)
  
• Website and Technology Development
  
• Celebrity alliances built for integrated communication
  
• Training of trainers: Partner organizations have been identified for the recruitment and training of trainers. Master trainers from these organizations shall be recruited, who will be supported by two other trainers (implementers) while conducting the workshops in colleges. Each master trainer and team shall be responsible for a minimum of 10-12 colleges. A certification of Master Trainers and Implementers shall be undertaken.
  
• A practice run of the workshop with all films and activities shall be conducted before conducting the workshops in 1000 colleges
  
•  Scheduling of the College Roll outs
  
•  Preparation of the Launch Seminar with multistakeholder, multi-disciplinary thought leadership, to be hosted by Niti Aayog.
  
• Research framework, premise, tools and instruments detailed.
  
•  Monitoring and Evaluation indicators detailed.

IMPLEMENTATION : MONTHS 4-9

• Workshops on ground in 1000 Colleges, with 1 lakh students;
  
•   Nationwide Mass Awareness Campaign Launch

EVALUATION & ITERATION : MONTHS 10-12

• Module, Content and Technology Upgradation;
  
• Web & App Development;
  
• Scheduling & Planning for Phase II;
  
• Monitoring and Evaluation for Pilot ProgramIncorporating Learning into the Module and Framework.

PROGRAMME OBJECTIVES

To educate, train, support, empower and build the capacity of NSS Volunteers across the nation so as to:

• Develop an understanding of protective legislations like the POCSO Act 2012.
  
• Recognize gender-based violence and child sexual abuse as a violation of one’s rights.
  
• Acquire Rights-Based Language for communication.
  
• Promote the importance of mental, physical and emotional health by addressing deep seated traumas.
  
•   Conduct peer education in both rural and urban populations through contact programmes, surveys and camps.
  
•  Create a culture free of Silence, Shame, Denial and Stigma.
  
• Build an environment that prohibits and prevents gender-based violence and sexual abuse.

PROPOSED LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of these sessions, the NSS POCSOA Champions will be equipped with:

• The capacity to prevent, prohibit and intervene in instances of sexual offences against children.
  
• Survivors of CSA will be guided towards tools that resolve and heal deep seated traumas.
  
•  These Champions will be sufficiently exposed to the punitive actions as a result to the offence, as well as the impact of sexual offences on the victims in order to create a prohibitive mindset towards any probable offence.

BUDGET

Intervention Per College: Rs. 1,21,000 : INR One Lakh Twenty One Thousand (Detailed budget breakdown available on request)

For more information about this project, Please click here to download the document.