The illustration conveys ‘Listen to your child’. It is meant to highlight the fact that in most cases, merely patient listening on part of the parent can help avert a lot.

Illustration for showing the effects of CSA. The concept of shadow was used to depict the ‘shadow’ cast on the victim that haunts him/her for a lifetime. The barren tree depicts the possible inability of the victim for intimacy in relationships.

Illustration for showing the nature of CSA, to be used with ‘Forms of CSA’. The concept of shoes was used in order to highlight the basic power-play involved in CSA.

Ms. Ketki Doshi Sanghvi is a young activist dedicated to the cause of Child Sexual Abuse and had worked with FACSE (Forum for Child Sexual Exploitation) in Mumbai for several years. I referred my initial illustration design concepts to her, and gradually refined them under her guidance.

She has been not only actively dealing with cases of CSA, but also dedicating herself to building knowledge and spreading awareness on the subject. Interaction with her not only validated my selected approach(communicating to parents), but also did away with some of my presumptions. In conversation with Ketki, some of the salient points that emerged were:

1. Communication must be clear and unpretentious. No beating around the bush

2. The core issue is lack of awareness in society.

3. Only targeting mothers (or even keeping it limited to parents), may not work in all cases. The communication must be flexible for the understanding of any caregiver.

4. The illustrations are grossly unclear.

5. In the model of the campaign, Medical Practitioners and Hospitals was an important link that was overlooked. She emphasized the importance of their role in this issue.

6. PREVENTIVE EDUCATION + AWARENESS RAISING + KNOWLEDGE BUILDING
are the key points to be addressed while dealing with this subject.

Ketki welcomed the idea of designing a booklet for parents, but she however pointed out the limitations of the medium. She shared with me several posters designed by art students and some by advertising agencies. It was both an opportunity and challenge that the medium I had chosen was a first of its kind, to the best of my knowledge.

Ketki encouraged me to develop the content, as I had a clear idea of the book — its voice, look and feel. She suggested the essential things to be included in the content, based on which, I created the following structure:
• Introduction to the subject
• Safe and unsafe touches, and educating the child distinguish
• Forms of CSA
• Short term and long term effects
• Symptoms
• Myths about abusers, and CSA can happen within the home or by persons of trust
• Why children keep quiet
• Listening and giving confidence to the child

She provided her resources for my reference, and I was amazed to find among them the first ever resource book on the subject, which I had received from Mr. Tarun Deep Girdher; while the first was in Hindi, this was a Marathi translated copy.

Content Planning

The important messages to be conveyed through the booklet are:

a. The child’s experience of an unwanted, abusive touch.
b. The child’s inability to assert his/her experience
c. That it happens in the family, and is more potential from trusted individuals.
d. That the child needs to be listened to and helped.
e. Listening is key to protect the child.
f. That CSA can have far reaching and life-long effects, if not dealt with appropriately.

A Z-bind publication allows a single book to present two separate units of information. This was the first choice for the solution.

As my target audience is parents, I thought of schools as the most effective and legitimate platform to reach out to a large number of parents. This can be undertaken through PTA meetings, where experts shall conduct workshops.

A set of four booklets would be designed in order for each of the four topics as mentioned in the approach. The core of these booklets would be ease of understanding for the parent, and would be suitably illustrated.
One of the booklets — Know it+Prevent it would be handed out to all parents complementary at the end of a workshop. This would contain links for other three topics. The books would be colour coded for differentiating among the topics.

The books would be made available in schools’ administrative offices, or by mail on order, and sold at a nominal price. They can be made available in regional languages, for ease of understanding.

Developing a Graphic System

Target group:
Children under 9 years of age
+Residing in urban India

Target audience :
Parents (Approximate age group 30 to 40 years of age)


Giving information and messages furnished in parts, and according to specific level of requirement of a parent or care-giver, was the basic idea, based on which two approaches were modelled.


Approach 1


Designing a system that would address the various levels of requirement, exclusively yet cohesively, was necessary. It was essential to solve: A/ how can we classify requirements of information and B/ how shall the appropriate information be reached to the respective audience.

A/ The levels to be addressed:


1/ What is CSA + what happens from a child’s point of view (The most important part to be understood by a parent)
2/ How to identify if your child has been or is being abused + How to handle disclosure
3/ What to do if your child is abused + Applying laws and getting aid
4/ How to heal a child from CSA
5/ Age-appropriate body- education and preventive education to children against CSA.

However the first level of knowing what is CSA, is a precondition to addressing all other levels of the issue.
Hence every link in the the system must serve basic + specific information and provides links to others.



Based on this approach, concepts were developed.