[1]In an effort to protest against the recent incidents of gender-violence in the capital, orphans, aged between 5 years to 14 years are gearing up to stage a street play.
The 20-minute play, Silence Violence is scheduled to be conducted on May 4 by the NGO — Street Level Awareness Program (SLAP) that aims to reach out to the masses and sensitise them against their indifference to issues like rape, eve-teasing and other forms of molestation.
Around 20 children involving orphans of Katyayani Seba Asram are participating in the play.
“When we as a society break our silence (and give up being indifferent) the perpetrators of such heinous crimes will have no option but to back off,” says Mriganka Dadwal, founder, SLAP.
The children in the orphanage say they are keen and excited to perform in the play and they have been rehearsing since the past two weeks.
“We are very happy to perform and we will keep doing street plays in the future also,” says 11-year-old Tejaswani, who aspires to become a doctor.
“We have been rehearsing everyday for the past two weeks. Didi (Mriganka) is teaching us everything. We are very happy indeed,” says 13-year-old Vidya.
The children are aware of the heinous Delhi gangrape on December 16 last year.
“We know what happened from watching TV. And we are hopeful that this play will take the message ahead,” says Vidya whose aim is to join the police force and help people in distress.
The children say they also want to learn martial arts so that they can be prepared to deal with any untoward incident.
Twelve-year-old Sabita and 14-year-old Anshu who are also performing say the street play will certainly make a difference in the minds of the people.
Organisers admit they were initially hesitant to talk to the children about rape.
“Initially, I was hesitant to talk to them about rape. But when I first interacted with them I got to know they already have an idea of what is happening in the society. Thanks to the media for highlighting the December gangrape case. Of course, I avoid terms like rape but I don’t feel hesitant anymore,” says Dadwal. SLAP was launched on 26th January, 2013 in the aftermath of the brutal gang rape and subsequent death of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student.
“It is a by-product of the rape case. Initially, I used to only light candles and protest. But I knew that will not do anything to change the ground reality. So I started SLAP and coordinated with the best of trainers and started self-defense workshops,” says Dadwal.
SLAP conducts self-defense workshops every weekend in the four metros — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, where women from the age group of 5 to 50 are trained on how to defend oneself in an SOS situation.
“Me and my three daughters have enrolled for the workshop since January. We feel more confident now. I would suggest all parents to make their children learn self-defense techniques from their childhood only,” says Bela Gupta, a homemaker.
Dadwal who has written the script of the play says that the play will be able to draw the attention of the people as “it is an effective medium.”
“We will be able to reach people through street play and drive home the message that people should stand up for each other and look inwards rather than blaming the system. Also, we wanted to work at the grass root level reaching out to as many people as we can on a one-to-one basis,” she adds.
Dadwal says that she specially wanted to involve orphans in the street play and make them learn self-defense techniques.
“Orphans do not have anybody to go for help. We want them to differentiate between what is a good touch and what is a bad touch. And we also want confidence to be instilled in them. And these children are very enthusiastic about performing in the play.”
Dadwal further says that they plan to go to rural areas and involve rural children in such initiatives and venture out in the slums as well in future. In future, they plan to perform street plays in Delhi University, Jantar Mantar in the coming months.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/0305slapjpg-484