Do you think in the 21st century too we hold and preach it? No rather, human values have been degraded to a great extent especially concerning children while we elders were busy making money and ignoring the emotional baggage our children carry within.

The Peace Ambassador, Dr Varun Gupta believes that children of all genders, social backgrounds, nationalities, and ages are harassed, smacked, tortured, and also killed with an accelerated algorithm since recent past. Violence against children is taking the shape of a global epidemic. Today, child abuse and violence are not only limited to homes and families but also schools, colleges, offices, and societies.

Edupreneur, Dr Varun Gupta has passed through numerous research reports claiming that brutality against children is one of the biggest problems affecting families and communities. Child assault has many forms varying from mental, emotional, physical, sexual abuse, neglect, domestic violence and much more.

While travelling to more than 35 countries, and coming across 2 million people, the travel enthusiast, Dr Varun Gupta has observed that domestic violence has affected children deeply, with severe consequences for their psychological, mental, and physical health.

Dr Varun Gupta, the Executive Vice President on Sky Global (USA) recollects from a session in London in recent past where a child psychologist had mentioned that with a lack of support, domestic violence can lead to trauma and affect the long term development of children. To add to the matter of surprise was the dialect that the people who usually carry out such violent acts are those closest to the children. It can be their parents, teachers, siblings, guardians, employers, and the people who are meant to protect them.  Sad! But yes, we need to be vigilant, aware and be prepared with an action plan for such barbaric global pandemic.

Violence can affect children for the rest of their life. They can experience depression, anxiety, aggression, and pass on the violence to their peers or future generations. Therefore, Dr Varun Gupta (Education Advisor to the State of African Diaspora) as a responsible citizen has drafted some effective approaches to cease the course of violence and help children become better human beings and thrive after experiencing it.

1. To focus on building and strengthening families for stable and positive relationships through trainings, webinars and workshops. Varun will be happy to conduct such workshops voluntarily.
2. Raising awareness and empowering societies and communities to create safer environments for children through common media like TV, Radio etc.
3. Teaching children to use their voice to prevent abuse in their life.
4. Turn your home a violence-free zone. Turn off violent TV shows and avoid physical punishment.
5. Build a support network of friends and families to respond appropriately to cases of child abuse and violence. This is a practical approach which can be easily adopted by housing committees etc.
6. Providing quality care and nurturing environments for the recovery of children who have faced molestation in the past.
7. Informing the government authorities about child abuse incidents by drafting reports and newsletter and sharing it across.
8. Collaborating with NGOs working for the rights of children and implementing the International Child Safeguarding Standards.
9. Motivating leaders in the different communities to support children facing any kind of violence at home or in society.
10. Giving training to healthcare professionals so that they can develop the required competencies to take care of children and help them overcome the facts of violence.

Thus, child exploitation in the form of abuse, domestic violence, child labour etc. pervades the developing world. Despite a lot of progress in the world, millions of children are still living without their basic rights. Their lives are being touched by conflict, slavery, sexual abuse and the impacts of climate conditions. Though there are bad times but also there are good times and saviors who care to make a difference in the world. With a firm belief to let no child spend his life with a few bad memories of his childhood, Dr Varun Gupta, being the education advisor to numerous educational institutions in Sri Lanka has joined hands with NGOs to work towards the upliftment of children.