The Mumbai Police launched a campaign called "Police Didi" in 2016, 4 years after the introduction of a special law to protect kids from sexual abuse. The campaign was based on data that showed that the perpetrators of these cases are often known to the kids. It also highlighted the need to teach kids, as many homes don't have the right tools or know how to talk to kids about what's safe and what's not. The campaign wanted to teach kids because some families might not know how to talk to kids about "good touch and bad touch," to explain what's safe and not safe for them. In this campaign, female police officers wearing regular clothes would go to schools and, with the help of school staff, would talk to kids about "good touch and bad touch."
According to 'The Indian Express', one such session took place at a school in the city’s western suburbs on 18 July 2016. At the end of the interactive session, the school’s principal asked the students if they had any questions. A Class 4 student came forward and told the principal about how a man who sold eggs and ran a laundry in their locality had been making her feel uncomfortable by inappropriately touching her. She said it started in 2015 when her parents sent her to fetch eggs and she went with a friend who was molested by him, she said. The girl told the principal about the incidents and the next day the school authorities called her parents and told them about them. A complaint was then filed by the school’s vice principal.
Subsequently, four additional girls came forward to reveal that they had been subjected to similar sexual abuse by the accused for a period of more than one year. Three of the victims were deposed during the trial conducted before the special court in Mumbai. The victims, ranging in age from 7 to 11 years, further stated to the court that the defendant had threatened them with death if they disclosed the abuse.
The person who was accused said that he was wrongly blamed, and he believed that the girls were coached to testify against him. The 30-year-old man was sentenced to five years in jail in 2018 after the court found him guilty under the relevant sections of the (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) POCSO Act.
As per 'The Indian Express' journal, while sentencing the accused the court said, “…considering the age of the victims and their testimony on record would reflect that they were rather naive girls of tender age who were not even aware of how to vent out the unsavoury experience of sexual assault, till the date of ‘Police Didi’ session,”
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