ASCCSA
The Annual Stakeholders’ Conference on Child Sexual Abuse (ASCCSA) was first organised by HEAL under the aegis of The Foundation in 2014. The first conference of its kind in India on child sexual abuse, ASCCSA opened a platform for professionals, organisations and civil society groups working against CSA to share, learn, work, and build on the earlier work of experts. With an aim to maximise collective strengths, minimize weaknesses and plug necessary gaps, ASCCSA 2014, 2015 and 2017 have seen an impressive line-up of various stakeholders presenting their work, experiences and challenges on CSA. The conference enabled the formation of formal networks and informal relationships.
The idea behind the conference germinates from the need to provide stakeholders with
opportunities to:
● Look at the methodology of each NGO/professional working against CSA with rigour and depth.
● Learn from different stakeholders and come up with a set of best practices.
● Draw up a blueprint for CSA organizations for the future.
ASCCSA 2014
2014 saw the first ever national level conference on child sexual abuse in India, organised on the 16th and 17th of April 2014, by HEAL. The conference had over 150 participants, 13 speakers and eight panelists from across the country. Over the two days of the conference, many important topics were focused upon, such as:
● Requirement vs. resources: bridging the gap in child sexual abuse.
● Assessing the gap between legislation and practice
● Revisiting trauma: Conflicts and complex recovery in the adult survivor.
● Medicolegal aspects of Child sexual abuse.
● From Shame and Secrecy to Disclosures: Methodology and Ethics in Childhood Sexual Abuse Research.
● India’s Hell Holes – Can the gaps to prevent child sexual abuse in juvenile justice institutions be addressed?
Read the report here.
Watch videos on presentations here.
Watch a conversation about CSA between Rahul Bose and Kalki Koechlin at the ASCCSA press conference here.
ASCCSA 2015
At ASCCSA 2015, the conference was expanded to global participation with two days of multiple pre-seminar workshops followed by two days of the main seminar. Over 100 international and national level experts in the field of CSA participated over four days, from the 20th to the 23rd of September 2015.
Various important issues were brought under the spotlight:
● Prevention Police POCSO: Training cops for dealing with CSA cases.
● Bystanders Protecting Children from Boundary Violations and Sexual Abuse.
● Relevance of Discourse on Sex and Gender for Prevention of Abuse.
● ‘Masculinities and Child Sexual Abuse: How Society’s Ideas About ‘Being a Man’ are Failing Male Survivors.
● Trauma and Talk Therapy: Brief Introduction to Trauma and the limitations of Traditional Talk Therapy.
● Conceptualising responses to sexual abuse of children in institutional care: prevention, investigation and rehabilitation.
Some of the workshops conducted before the conference were:
● Using the Traumagenic Dynamic Framework to assess pre- and adolescent girls who have been sexually abused.
● Let’s #TalkSexuality: The Whys and Hows of an Affirmative Approach to Addressing Sexuality.
● Web Rangers: Protecting your kids online.
● Working with Sexually Abusive Children and Community Systems.
Read the report here.
Watch videos on presentations here.
ASCCSA 2017
The 3rd edition of ASCCSA was hosted on May 5th & 6th, 2017 in Mumbai.
With over 11 speakers and four panels, the conference brought together stakeholders to collectively review methods, exchange best practices and draw blueprints for the future. The conference was attended by over 150 people, comprising of organisations working in child protection – Indian & global, civil society institutions focused on child protection, mental health professionals, social workers, school principals and teachers, lawyers, medical professionals, and other stakeholders of child sexual violence.
The conference was preceded by two days of workshops, on May 3rd & 4th, 2017, specifically designed to build the capacity of professionals.
The 2017 conference addressed many important topics like:
● The Neurobiology of Child Sexual Abuse: What happens inside?
● There is nothing queer about it: Working with children with alternate genders and sexuality.
● Restorative justice: An alternative to retributive justice.
● Don’t Offend – The India Network: Towards primary prevention of CSA.
● Not just pictures: Understanding online victimization.
● Navigating the digital space: Children’s internet rights v/s safety from sexual abuse.
The following workshops were spread across two days:
● Paving the path to healing: responding sensitively to child survivors of sexual abuse.
● Disability, Sexuality & Sexual Abuse: A Practitioner’s Perspective.
● Understanding and applying trauma theory in practice.
● Young people in a hyper connected world: beyond do’s and don’ts for online safety.
Read the report here.
Watch videos of the presentations here.