It’s about more than surviving

Pavithra Nuthakki, training director, Survival Instinct, and her team have conducted over 200 programmes in self-defence skills for women in the year gone by. She teaches a mixed martial arts (MMA) programme that comes with psychological training and is designed to help women tackle unpleasant situations with ease.

“All my programmes were received well in 2013,” says Pavithra. “We organised sessions for college girls, school-goers and corporates. The most successful programme we did was ‘simulation-based self defence’ which explains how violence against women is unpredictable, and how it can be handled in a sensible way. I did research into the ways in which women can defend themselves in such situations.”

She organised a self-defence programme for working women on International Women’s Day. “The Delhi Braveheart case created an outrage among the people — our sessions started to register larger numbers, with more women approaching us to learn these skills. We also taught them how to use pepper spray,” says Pavithra.

‘Extreme violence and aggression — defence, escape — evade’ is yet another concept that she and her team put into practice in November 2013 which teaches people about the natural and psychological ability of a woman to defend herself in the toughest and most unpredictable of situations. “This programme is going to be very successful in 2014 and we will try our best to take this to as many women as possible out there,” she says. “We have plans to conduct full time sessions for working women on weekends, instead of  conducting only a four-hour session.

Pavithra also trains school kids on how to protect themselves from child abuse and to combat psychological barriers. When many hesitated to discuss controversial topics with the team, she took the step of explaining it to them.

“We explain to children, what ‘good touch’ is and what ‘bad touch’ is,” she says. “Also, Survival Instinct is the only wing of the American Red Cross in India. We teach the general public some world class first aid techniques, which was not practiced in India. In 2014, we are planning to implement new programmes for working women.”