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.”
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