Over 40 students from various colleges of Bokaro have come together to spread awareness regarding gender equality in rural areas of the district.
Yugdeo Mahatha of Chas College, who leads the group said, “We have identified a total of 100 villages in the district where we are visiting one by one, spreading the message of gender equality, anti human trafficking, witch hunting and other social causes.”
A team of 10 students out of the total 40, led by Mahatha visits one village on every weekend to spread their message. “Till date we have already covered eight villages,” he said.
The team of 40 includes students from Chas College, Guru Govind Singh Technical College and a few students of class 11 and 12 from different schools in Bokaro.
The students visit the Panchayat bhavan in the villages where they bring together children between the ages of eight to 18 and teach them about various issues, right from sexual harassment to witch hunting, human trafficking, child marriage and other social evils.
Mohit Kumar Singh, a part of the group said, "Many girls face sexual harassment in the villages but they never react as they fear being shamed by the villagers. We are trying to remove this social stigma attached with the survivors and are encouraging them to raise their voices."
The team also visits the local government schools where they spread the word of gender equality.
"Human trafficking is a major concern in the area as the innocent girls are often lured by the traffickers with dreams of lavish lifestyle and end up being exploited. We tell the students that if they come across such cases, they should immediately contact us so we can help out," Mahatha said.
The team also tries to reach every household in the villages through street plays and storytelling. The children of villages are taught to perform street plays on these topics and one play is organized in the village every week by them.
"We are teaching the children to perform as they are the best agents of change. When their parents and other family members see the children performing they will automatically be more sensitive towards these issues," Mahatha said.
The efforts of these college students has already started showing results as now people contact them if they see something wrong happening.
“Yesterday we got a call from a village in sector 5 of Bokaro where a lost girl was found. We immediately rushed to help and with the help of local police, we were able to repatriate the girl,” Mahatha said.