DARE – You Can

DARE – You Can

Witty International School, Pawan Baug decided to celebrate Women’s Day differently this year by organising DARE (Defence Against Rape and Eve Teasing) workshop which was conducted by Ms. Vaamaa Baldota. The school wanted to empower the girls with self-defence techniques which would help them to protect themselves against eve-teasing or sexual harassment.

Ms Vaamaa Baldota, who has been trained by Mr Deepak and Ms Seema Rao, UCCA, Mumbai (Unarmed Commando Combat Academy), launched the DARE programme few months ago. This workshop is an effort to instill in young girls self-confidence and courage to handle situations such as physical attacks, sexual assault and harassment.

The programme started off with a power-point presentation, interspersed with situation enactment, videos and practical demos. Basic knowledge about good-touch & bad-touch education, eve teasing — what to do when a guy stares, tries to hold your hand, what happens when you overreact, how and where to slap a person, how to escape etc. were discussed in detail and at the end of the programme each girl was made to practise the techniques which were demonstrated.

In a session that lasted over two hours, she made the students aware of the possible threats and attacks and how to tackle attackers even if they are tall, muscular and hefty. The Slap, the Collar Grab, the Chest Push, Neck lock, Roll back and Pull and Push—she demonstrated all the techniques with her team of two volunteers.

“Slapping a big guy does not require strength but only the right technique. If you learn these simple techniques, it will go a long way in warding off attacks,” pointed out Ms Vaamaa Baldota.

Describing various kinds of offences against women and the laws and punishment for these crimes, Ms Vaamaa urged the students to take a vow of not just protecting themselves but also other women in trouble.

Ms Vaamaa stresses that the workshop is based on leveraging technique and timing and not speed, power and strength. It helps girls identify various threats – ranging from being stuck alone with a man in a lift to finding a stranger at the door and then defending against common attacks using available objects or the environment itself, to protect oneself.

Mr Bijo Kurian, Principal of Witty International School remarked, “With cases of crime against women on the rise, it is important that every woman knows how to defend herself. The DARE programme was an initiative to empower the girls of our school with self defence techniques to protect themselves in every possible way.”