A Rakshin is a preventer of Child Sexual Abuse who has been skill-built and has access to information, resources and tools. The NSS Volunteers of 40,000 Colleges will be equipped to become Rakshins : The POCSO Champions of Change.

The Rakshin Project will be delivered in 40,000 Colleges Pan-India in each district.

The Rakshin Project is built on a unique Five Pillar structure that is framed within the Constitutional Right to Equality. The programme entails a 3 Hour on-ground Experiential Workshop to equip NSS Students from each college with tools to prevent Child Sexual Abuse. For students who are survivors of Child Sexual Abuse. The Rakshin Project also provides Resolution Mechanisms in the form of Creative Expressions, Counselling and Legal Aid.To ensure sustainability, the programme entails a Rakshin Fellowship programme with Five Levels. Through the various levels, the Rakshins will raise awareness in communities through : Each Teach Two, Focused Group Discussions and Village Interventions, organised and moderated by them. At the end of the two-year NSS cycle, students who have completed and excelled in all Four Levels can apply for the prestigious ‘Rakshin Fellowship 5.0’. 10 Rakshins identified through a rigorous screening process will be awarded seed-funding as Rakshin Fellow 5.0.

1. Framed within the Constitutional Right to Equality The content for the workshop is based on creating an ownership for our Constitutional Right to Equality and arrive at ways to practice Equality in our Everyday Life where Child Sexual Abuse is concerned.

2. Experiential Pedagogy
The deployment of the Experiential Pedagogy using Films, Role Plays, Songs, Games and Debriefs ensures that the information penetrates the tertiary layer of information gathering, sediments as fact-based knowledge, and is processed though an emotional interface to supersede conventional wisdom, thus impacting deep seated and embedded attitudes around Child Sexual Abuse.

3. Resolution Mechanisms
The three-pronged Resolution Mechanisms made available to all the participants ensures that the disclosures move beyond an expression into resolution. The mechanisms include, Creative Expressions, Online Counseling and Legal Aid.

4. Integrated Trans Media Communication Strategy
The integrated communication strategy involving well known icons, opinion makers, and celebrities, mainstreams the conversation around Child Sexual Abuse beyond the colleges, and addressed the barriers imposed by denial, silence, stigma and shame.

5. Sustained Engagement: Rakshin Fellowships
Sustained engagement through the Rakshin Fellowships, Level 1.0 to Level 5.0 ensures a sustained transmission of knowledge, with the message receivers becoming the message carriers, leading to the social tipping point to #StopChildSexualAbuse.

Rakshin 1.0
expresses learnings through Creative Expressions. The top 1000 artworks to be selected and exhibited on The Rakshin Project social outreach platforms.
Rakshin 2.0
is equipped with the information, understanding, tools and language to be a peer educator, with the responsibility of Each Teach Two.
Rakshin 3.0
leads focussed group discussions, host Webinars on constitutional right to equality and prevention of child sexual abuse.
Rakshin 4.0
an Action Practioner, takes the initiative as part of his/her village service initiative, to a peer group in Rural India .
RAKSHIN 5.0
is dynamic leader chosen through a rigorous screening process and is at the forefront of social change. Rakshin 5.0 Fellows are social entrepreneurs with innovative solutions to social problems being addressed by The Rakshin Project.

The Rakshin Project logo depicts an Adult Stakeholder preventing harm to a Child. The illustration also forms the initials of the project: T, R & P. The colours Aqua and Blue have been chosen for their symbolism for Health and Hygiene.

Sakshi pioneered work in Gender Equality, Gender-Based Violence, Sexual Harassment and Child Sexual abuse back in the early 1990’s. Sakshi filed the landmark Public Interest Litigation (PIL) ‘Sakshi Vs. Union of India’ which informed the 172nd Law Reform which went on to become the basis for the POCSO Act. Sakshi has been working relentlessly over three decades to create a rights-based enabled environment where prevention takes precedence.