Jaipur. Troubled by the increasing incidents of molestation in the society, a government primary school teacher has taken the initiative to teach self-defense tricks to the girls, especially the visually impaired and hearing impaired children and for this she is also taking the help of special techniques.
Asha Suman, a 40-year-old teacher working in Government Upper Primary School, Kharkhada in Rajgarh, Alwar district.
Asha Suman) first attended a training camp organized by the police department in 2015 and it was from here that she got inspired to give self-defense training to girls without weapons. She believes that girls with disabilities are more prone to sexual harassment, so it is more important to train them to protect themselves in such situations.
Realizing the challenge faced by such girls, the teacher took a special self-defense training in Mumbai in 2019 at her own expense and then went on to train others. Teacher Asha Suman has trained more than 300 such girls from different parts of the state in the last three years. Most of the girls participated in the annual training camps organized by the State Education Department. Other girls were trained by him in Alwar.
In Jaipur, 55 handicapped girls including 11 visually impaired girls were trained in a self-defense government training camp for disabled, visually impaired girls from October 6 to 15. This training was given by Asha Suman from Alwar and Krishna Verma, another trainer from Jhalawar.
Teacher Suman told that the risk of sexual abuse of visually impaired girls is higher than normal girls. They cannot see, nor can they imagine the techniques they are taught so they are given special training. He said that the training being given to the girls is linked with their daily activities and they are taught methods like punch, kick, forward and backward, hand movements which not only empower them to face the risky situation but also It also boosts their confidence. According to him, the girls were told that the attacker has to be pushed like the way the door is opened with a push.
Suman said that along with blind and hearing impaired girls, other types of disabled girls are also given training in self-defense without weapons. He told that it does not matter what kind of disability he has. They are well trained to defend themselves when needed so that they can defend themselves immediately and sound the alarm for help.
The teacher said that after taking self-defense training, not only the girls, but their family members also felt confident. Blind Pooja Goswami, who came to take training from Jodhpur, told that in the ten-day self-defense training camp, everything was taught so easily that we cannot even imagine. I think all girls should take such training. Pooja’s mother told that she always had fear about Pooja before her training but now I am sure that she can protect herself.
Monika, a blind student of class 12th from Alwar district, said that I cannot see at all, but after training I am so confident that I can protect myself. 16-year-old Anita, who is blind from Hanumangarh, said, “We have been taught how to pull the hair, elbow or push it away if the attacker is ahead of us.”
10-year-old Manorama, a Class VI student from Dholpur, said that young children were made to practice self-defense techniques with the help of dummy. He said, “We were taught to attack the attacker. For doing excellent work in the field of education on behalf of the education department, teacher Suman was given the state level teacher award in 2021. She has been awarded Indira Shakti Puraskar by the district administration for her work in the field of women empowerment. (Language)
