Aarambh Initiative

It is the country's first-ever hotline to curb sexual abuse of children through the Internet and to remove child pornographic content online unveiled.

About initiative

• Its objective is to eliminate the scourge of online child pornography and further the cause of child protection in online spaces.
• It is a network of organizations and individuals working on child protection in the country, has collaborated with the U.K.-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF).
• The hotline in India will be hosted on aarambhindia.org and will enable users to report child sexual abuse images and videos in a safe and anonymous environment.
• It is a simple, accessible form (available in Hindi & English) that any informed user who stumbles across sexually explicit imagery of a child on the public internet can use to report the content. Latter it will be started in other languages.

Aarambh India is a joint initiative that brings together over 30 years of on-ground child protection experiences of the Mumbai-based NGO Prerana and the international ‘Break the Silence’ campaign of the Hong Kong-based ADM Capital Foundation.

• They follow up and facilitate short-term and long-term rehabilitation of cases of child victims of sexual offences in 3 districts.
• In collaboration with UNICEF in Mumbai, this NGO is working strengthening child protection services and systems of the Government.
• In 2014, the NGO launched this website which is India’s first online resource portal on child sexual abuse and exploitation.
• It also hosts the first Internet hotline in India for reporting online child sexual abuse material.

Child

• Any person below the age of 18 years to be a child in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 and the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.

Child Sexual Abuse

• In accordance with the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012, any act of sexual violation against children, penetrative or non-penetrative, touch or non-touch, aggravated or non-aggravated in nature that could include sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography, as Child Sexual Abuse.
• Abetment and attempt to commit an offence is also an offence.

Source: website of the initiative