National award winning film on child abuse to be shown in PMC schools
April 27, 2017 · By Ardhra Nair for indianexpress.com
The women and child development ministry and the Central Board of Secondary Education have endorsed the movie. The movie would be telecast soon, said ministry officials
Komal is a ten-minute animated movie on child abuse.
Komal, a film on child sexual abuse which won this year’s national award for best educational film, may soon become compulsory viewing in PMC-run schools in the city.
“We are trying our best to decrease violence against children in schools, especially sexual abuse. We will talk to the people concerned and make sure that this film is introduced to kids in schools. We will introduce it to students of classes IV to VII as this is the age to learn about sexual abuse and the film portrays a kid in the same age group,” said Shivaji Daundkar, education officer, PMC.
The women and child development ministry and the Central Board of Secondary Education have endorsed the movie. It would soon be telecast in English, Hindi and 16 other languages, said officials from the ministry.
“There are some technical difficulties over the format of the movie, the picture quality and the dubbing. Once all the issues are resolved, it will be telecast by Doordarshan and regional Doordarshan channels at an appropriate time to spread awareness,” said an official from the
ministry.
Komal is a ten-minute animated movie and a young girl Komal is its central character. It deals with how Komal is sexually abused by her father’s friend, the trauma thereafter and how counselling helps her finally. The movie is already available in Youtube and other websites. At the 62nd National Film Awards, Komal and Behind the Glass Wall were declared as the best educational films in the country on March 24.
Talking about the movie and child sexual abuse cases, Anuradha Sahasrabudhe, founder-director of Dnyana Devi Childline said, “The movie was made by our Mumbai office. The movie has an animated character and it shows abuse in a way that children can watch. Child sexual abuse was always there and we cannot say that it is increasing or there is a trend. However, more people and children are becoming aware about it and hence, more cases are reported. The number of such cases will come down only with awareness about the problem in the society and better communication between parents and children.”
