She Teams to train girl students in martial arts

HYDERABAD: In order to put in check the growing incidences of sexual abuse of minor girls, the She Teams have come up with a plan to make school and college going girls mentally and physically strong and develop self confidence in them so that they can themselves deal with any such situation.

Over 1,600 schools in the city have been identified by the She Teams to train girls in martial arts and to conduct more sexual abuse awareness programmes this year. According to the officials, parents have been approaching the She Team officials to conduct sexual abuse awareness programmes and teach them self defence techniques so that their daughters could deal with any odd situation.

“Based on the request of the parents, we will approach all schools as we have done earlier, but this time, apart from counselling programmes, we will be giving them martial arts training too,” said Sirisha Raghavendra, additional commissioner of police. “Parents also should spare at least 30 minutes with their children so that they feel free to reveal anything strange instead of hiding,” Sirisha said. “Our motive is to see that students should be prepared to handle any situation themselves rather than fall prey to predators, she said.

She Teams, for the first time, hired martial women instructors who will be teaching self defence techniques to students from class VII till class XII in all schools.

Simultaneously, She Team officials will also visit every school showing them videos to educate them of sexual abuse in public places that are most venerable. “This year She Teams got excellent response from parents for counselling girl students. Hundreds of parents appreciated our work and over 380 minor girls who were counselled alerted their parents on time about sexual abuses they faced and action was taken against the culprits,” she said.

“Martial arts training is must for everyone, especially girls, as it develops self confidence. If the student practices at least two techniques and is perfect, she will automatically react if some strangers try to misbehave,” Raja Vardhan, a martial arts expert who trained National Security Guards (NSG) commandos, said. “If anybody learns the technique of block and strike at the same time, the victim can easily strike and manage to escape. Next time, the miscreant will think twice before resorting to abusing any girl,” he said.