#TW: Sexual violence

Today is the International Day of the Girl themed “My Voice, Our Equal Future” which highlights the power behind the voice of girls & the need to put them at the centre of addressing issues peculiar to them & leading change.

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A major area we must work together with girls to address is sexual violence. Globally, 1 in 5 girls has experienced sexual violence @WHO. Over the past 2 months, a substantial number of the cases reported online about sexual violence in India involved girls.

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This ranges from 4 cases in Lakhimpur Kheri involving 3-,13-,14-& 17-year-olds to the 19-year-old Dalit teenager from #Hatras in Uttar Pradesh.

2 weeks ago, about ½ of the cases of rape/gang rape/attempted rape compiled by @rihini_sgh involved girls.

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A major step we can take to address sexual violence against girls is working with girls to speak up & break the culture of silence around rape & other forms of sexual assault. Parents/guardians play a major role in this as they are the primary caregivers.

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Let’s teach our girls to distinguish between safe & unsafe touches & private parts of their bodies. Help them understand that they can say “no” if touched in an unwanted way & that they cluster report the abuser to trusted adults.

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Let’s ensure girls have the safe space to speak up against abuse, irrespective of the perpetrator.

Caregivers watch out for signs of abuse or change in behaviour girls might display.

According to @cece_yara, some of these are:

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- Unreasonable fear of physical examination
- A noticeable fear of person/s or certain places
- Abdominal and pelvic pains
- Fear of being separated from caregiver
- Nightmares and/or difficulty sleeping
- Trying to get other children to perform sexual acts

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Ultimately, it is important to ALWAYS believe girls when they speak up about being touched inappropriately and/or sexually abused. It takes courage for a girl to move past fear & open up about abuse.

Be supportive & seek help immediately.

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Sayfty’s Survivors Toolkit has a directory of organisations that offer urgent support to sexual abuse survivors in India.

You can access these via https://sayfty.com/survivorstoolkit/urgentsupport/

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