Tata Tea ‘Suraksha’ – A step towards building a safer society
The most recent statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau show that crimes against women in India have increased by 34% in the past four years (Source: The Conversation). Additionally, a survey by ActionAid UK showed that four out of five women (79%) in the country have experienced some form of harassment or violence in public (Source: Indian Express).
We as a society have raised our voices every time there has been a disaster (we all remember the widespread protests after the Nirbhaya incident). However, our knee-jerk reactions have not succeeded in making our society safer, and nor have they addressed the real issues – the lack of gender sensitisation and lack of gender equality in our society. One way to make our society safer is to Pre-Act against these issues.
With our Tata Tea Alarm Bajne Se Pehle Jaago Re initiative, millions of Indians came together to lead the wave of Pre-Activism in India. Over 1.05 million people signed the ‘Alarm Bajne Se Pehle Jaago Re’ petition for compulsory gender sensitisation in schools, and the petition was submitted to the HRD Ministry earlier this year. Taking this movement forward, we launched ‘Suraksha’, an initiative to empower young girls across India to take their safety in their own hands.
Safety first with Tata Tea ‘Suraksha’
The initiative was carried across 328 schools in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. A special self-defense training program was constructed and over 93,000 girls received self-defense training as part of the 'Suraksha' initiative.
A strong self-defense program was implemented for school girls between the age group of 10 years to 16 years. A special self-defense training module was prepared with the help of experts using elements from various martial arts such as Judo and Karate. The duration of the program was 4 days and each session was for 1.5 hours. A total of 6 hours were invested in each child during the program, making sure that the sessions were not only about physical strength but also about mental fitness. A variety of self-defense techniques were taught to the girls. The experts gave a live demo of various techniques such as elbow strike, chop attack, tiger grip, push kick and knife defense.
Pushing the limits!
This was later practiced by the girls who displayed immense dedication and enthusiasm during the entire learning process. Avinash Pandey, one of the trainers from Delhi said, "The Suraksha program has been devised in such a way that it will not only help the girls to defend themselves but at the same time boost their strength, stamina, agility and flexibility. It is extremely important for these girls to continue practicing what has been taught to them during the program. Practice holds the key to building confidence and to being ready to implement these techniques in real life situations."
Tata Tea 'Suraksha' helped Tata Consumer Products Limited to achieve its objective of connecting with the society and creating awareness on the importance of training girls to defend themselves before any unforeseen incidents occur. Let's ensure that we do our bit to help create a safer tomorrow by empowering our children today to ‘Pre-act’ and not ‘React’.
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Alarm Bajne Se Pehle #JaagoRe
Sources: The Conversation, Indian Express
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