Schools planning to come up with 'Good touch Bad touch' in curriculum

Kolkata: In the wake of two incidents of sexual abuse in two premier schools in the city, the School Education department is mulling with the idea of introducing the concept of Good Touch & Bad Touch in the school curriculum.

The West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) and the Syllabus Restructure Committee of the Education department are working on the modalities of the step.

It is learnt that a preliminary discussion by the Committee and WBCPCR on how to proceed in this regard has been held. More such meetings will follow.

"We are planning to start with workshops and for this we will be involving doctors and psychologists. We are discussing with various stakeholders to prepare a road map," said Aveek Majumdar, chairman of the Syllabus Committee. The committee is hopeful of preparing a comprehensive framework on this by the end of this month.

An official in the Education department said that the department is mulling with the idea of holding workshops from class I to IV.

"The whole sense of Good Touch & Bad Touch is very sensitive so we want to proceed as per the concept of joyful learning. We are planning to impart lessons through cartoons,

children poetry and drama as we feel it is difficult to make primary students understand this concept through text books at the primary level. The concept will be different for the teachers and students," a senior official said.

According to Ananya Chatterjee Chakraborti, chairperson of WBCPCR, child abuse happens more at home than in school so awareness should start right from class I. "We have to make the victim realise that he/she should not be ashamed of such abuse. It is the offender who should be ashamed of such an act," she added.

According to UNESCO, around 23 percent of students in the country are victims of such 'touch abuse'.