Trigger warning: This story contains mentions of child sexual abuse.
“It takes a village to prevent child sexual abuse,” says Anuja Amin, a 37-year-old who founded Circles of Safety in 2015.
This venture, she says, is an attempt to sensitise the community and be the voice for children who have been sexually abused.
As a survivor herself, Anuja says she was often not equipped with the words or the emotional vocabulary to describe what had happened to her.
Cut to 2015, when the trauma and angst fuelled in her a desire to change the narrative.She started Circles of Safety after quitting her job in the Netherlands and returning to India.
Through the platform, she conducts workshops in schools, where she helps parents and staff embrace personal safety discussions rather than wish them away.
At the heart of Circles of Safety is the core belief that sexual development in children does not only include physical changes, but also sexual knowledge, beliefs, and behaviours.
In 2019, the team also ventured into a comprehensive sexuality education curriculum starting from Class 1 to 12 based on international guidelines.
This curriculum includes detailed lesson plans to educate children about sexuality, reproductive health, abuse and consent, physiological changes, etc.
Each topic is made age-appropriate for the particular grade.
With an ambitious goal of arming every school with the curriculum, Anuja says the difference between theirs and others is the personal approach they take.
“We handhold each school, thus ensuring the programme has been implemented in a sustainable way.”
“The goal is to approach governments and empower children across India,” she adds.
Their various workshops have impacted over 9,000 parents and educators and 4,000 children.