To observe the Sexual Assault Awareness Month, we joined hands with Aks Foundation- a Pune based Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) working to combat gender-based violence. Firstly, we organised and conducted a Poem-writing competition, the theme of which was Sexual Assault. We had a total of 21 entries and the results were announced on 20th April 2021. The 2 winners declared were Ms. Aathira Nair and Ms. Laveena Dias. The judges for this competition were: our Director, Dr. B Nanwani and Ms. Charu Mudholkar, Aks Foundation.

On 23rd April 2021, we had the Director of Operations at Aks Foundation who clearly laid down the various forms of sexual harassment and explained the meaning and differences between: Sexual harassment at workplace, stalking, voyeurism, disrobing a woman, outraging a woman’s modesty and insulting a woman’s modesty. With statistics from National Crime Record Bureau, 2019, National Commission for Women, 2020 and Business Standard Newspaper she revealed to us some astonishing facts: a. one case of stalking takes place every 55 minutes, b. about 88 cases of rape take place every day, c. while the conviction rate is under 30%. She continued to explain the dynamics of sexual assault and the 4 trauma responses of: Flight, Fight, Freeze and Fawn.