Empower – An Awareness and Self Defense Program
The main objective of this project is to create awareness about sexual assault which occur on women and children on a daily basis and to empower and train them with martial arts to defend themselves whenever such kind of incidents occurs.
We would also like to make people aware that sexual assault is not a stigma and it is not the fault of the victim. We also guide people on how to treat the victim, if they share such kind of incidents. Sexual harassment pertaining laws, help lines and guidelines which are present in India will be also briefed out.
The more acceptances we have for the survivors in our society and the more these incidents are reported and accused are punished, the more sexual assault incidents will be reduced. Our objective is also to create a strong network of Ambedkarite Lawyers (who can help them fight case, with some concession or free of cost), Police and IAS officers (to help register a complaint when the police is not co-operating), Medical Professionals/Counselors (to help the victim heal), news reporters (to help advertise and get justice) and mainly network of organizations that counsel and heal the victim when a sexual assault occurs.
This program is mainly devised for Ambedkarite (marginalized) audience and will be advertised accordingly.
The purpose of this workshop is to provide:
- Explain what is sexual violence & abuse
- Reasons behind sexual violence & abuse,
- Create sensitivity towards the victim,
- Information on related laws,
- Possible indicators to identify abuse, how to respond & support the victim
- Self-defense techniques to prevent assault / attack.
- And most importantly mitigate sexual violence against women and children
We also want to create support groups for victims by forming network of Police or IAS/IPS officers (Network of Police to help women to want to register a complaint in case the police station refuses to register a complaint or police is misbehaving), Network of Lawyers (who can help them fight case, with some concession or free of cost), Network of Media (to help generate awareness about issues), Network of Doctors, Network of social workers
Workshop participants are encouraged to interact by asking questions, doubts as well as provide feedback to improve.
In November 2013, first workshop was conducted for students & parents of Buddhist International School (BIS) located in Rameshwari, Nagpur. Second workshop was conducted at Ambedkar Bhawan, Nagpur in December 2013 for diverse group of people. Both were well received and many people volunteered to help in future workshops. Few victims of abuse also approached for help/advise
AIM (USA & JAPAN) and AANA (USA) are not for profit, charitable organizations that believe in Dr. Ambedkar’s philosophy of “Educate, Agitate and Organize” & are working towards fulfilling his vision of better society.
If you would like more information about these workshops or the organizations involved, please contact us at mm_usa@googlegroups.com.
