Pooja Taparia
Founder, Arpan, Mumbai

Pooja Taparia is founder and chief executive of Arpan, a Mumbai-based award-winning NGO providing child sexual abuse prevention and intervention advisories to children and adults.

• I am hopeful that the new national curriculum framework will give high importance to sexual abuse prevention and personal safety education. It should provide clear guidelines to schools on ways to equip children with the knowledge and skills to identify unsafe situations, refuse assertively and seek support.
• NEP 2020 has directed inclusion of social and emotional learning (SEL) in all schools. I am expecting NCFSE to advise all schools countrywide to allocate time, dedicated resources and teaching-learning materials to this important subject.
• In alignment with NEP 2020’s mandate to all schools to provide a safe and secure learning environment for all children, NCFSE 2023 should recommend all schools to design a Child Protection Policy which will advise school managements and teachers to ensure zero tolerance towards child abuse.
• I hope that NCFSE 2023 will offer a roadmap to all schools to create trauma-free learning environments for children and provide access to counselling and therapy.