We, at Bodhini, have been conducting awareness sessions in schools, colleges and workplaces with an aim to prevent offences related to online safety and sexual violence, to empower victims and to help them heal and move forward. Born from the concept that teaching children to empower themselves is the best way to deal with the increasing issues of online safety, we work mainly on two ends of the spectrum: preventive awareness sessions where online safety rules and body safety rules are conveyed; and a module on healing so that individuals who have been through traumatic situations / abuse feel that they can move forward without letting the perpetrator define their future.

Target population

We have different modules for different profiles of individuals based on their language, age, area of residence, etc. Thus, the sessions are equipped to reach across all sections (regardless of the country, age and gender).

As of now, the full programme is being delivered only in India. The programme is designed to be used anywhere in the world. The modules are age specific; we have different modules for different age groups starting from 4 years and older. The audience’s profile, area and language are also taken into account when we conduct sessions.

Presently, we do the sessions in Malayalam and in English. We are equipped to train trainers to conduct the sessions in other languages, provided that the communication for training the trainers is in English.

Delivery organisation

Schools, colleges, workspaces, different communities, professionals, corporates, etc.

Mode and context of delivery

The modules are delivered either online or offline and only in a group setting. The intervention is delivered in English and Malayalam languages. 

Intensity/extent of engagement with target group(s)

20 minutes to 1.5 hours, depending on the age of the participants.

We have delivered our awareness sessions to various audiences, for a total of more than one lakh individuals. In our sessions for very small children, in the age group of 4 to 5 years, we cover body safety rules and a few points on safe gadgets. The duration of the session is 20 minutes taking into consideration their short attention span and limited grappling powers.

The sessions for children of 5th to 7th grade and above (8th to 12th), college students, corporates and parents are about an hour and half each with Q&A sessions at the end. We also have informative videos on YouTube that have more than 47 lakh viewers worldwide and the same has helped to create awareness on our topics, mainly on online safety.

Description of intervention

The programme focuses on the idea that prevention is better than cure; on empowering individuals with safety rules so that they can make informed choices. It works on the same principle that knowledge of road safety rules prevents accidents on the road. Part of it is about providing help/intervention if someone is facing any of these issues and the other part focuses on the importance of healing and moving on.

We also touch upon the topic of healing to help perpetrators and try to address the issues from a potential perpetrator’s point-of-view in very broad terms, mostly about their choices not to harm others and about moving on. Though this is not dealt with in great detail, we will be talking about the support systems available for potential perpetrators, so that they could get help that would turn them away from acting out potential offences and their issues.

Online safety, grooming, body safety rules, healing, children and pornography, how to support victims of abuse, identifying toxic relationships, addictions and deaddiction, digital well-being, moving forward, the power of gratitude, positivity are some of the broader topics covered, depending on the age group of the audience.

Topics for each age specific sessions are selected on the basis of the requirements of that age group. For smaller children, the focus is more on body safety rules and for older age groups, the topics include online safety rules, body safety rules, healing and related topics.

The programmes are a combination of presentations and interactive workshops. There are base-level topics like online safety and healing for all audiences except for very small children. We also cover other topics as per the audience’s needs, like moving forward, on using gratitude and the power of positivity and the importance of mental wellbeing. We deliver the talk with the help of audio-visual resources and at the end, we take questions from participants on topics that they might not be comfortable discussing with anyone else. If they need further intervention, we help them get further support, depending on their query.

Evaluation about sessions

These awareness sessions would benefit anyone struggling in these spaces as well as help to prevent issues online. The feedback from the participants have been very positive in terms of processing of information. They also know enough about not giving in to threats and to reach out if in trouble.