‘Good touch-bad touch’ campaign for kids in Maharashtra

Shaken by the spate of sexual assaults and rapes committed on 5 to 10 year-old girls, the Medical Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) in the state has launched a campaign, following the thumb rule that ‘prevention is better than cure’. 

“We have started the ‘good touch-bad touch’ campaign from Monday and it will continue till the month-end. We plan to sensitise the kids between 5 and 10 years of age, who are most vulnerable to these problems... who know something about their private parts, but exactly don’t know what is good and what’s bad,” said MARD chief Sagar Mundada.

The doctors would also counsel parents whose children are in the age bracket of 3-10 years. “We would ask the parents to never allow a girl child to sit on anybody’s lap, never undress and dress in front of others, and also to never force a child to go out with an adult with whom he or she is not comfortable,” said Mundada, a psychiatrist.

“If your child complains of anything, never take it lightly and go to the bottom of the story and show the child that you can stand up for them,” Mundada said.

The need is to differentiate between the good and bad touch. Kissing on mouth, touching private parts, touch by an adult telling to keep secret, touch that makes child nervous, hurt or uncomfortable are bad touch,” Mundada said.

Referring to WHO’s findings, he said that every three hours, one girl below 16 years of age is raped in the country, and every 12 hours, one girl aged below 10 becomes victim of sexual assault.