Trisha Krishnan was at Chennai’s Stella Maris College addressing 3,000 students and members of the college’s staff. As a UNICEF celebrity advocate, she participated at an event titled #ENDviolence Youth Talks and spoke about the disturbing increase in ‘POCSO’ (The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) cases that were registered between 2014 to 2016 across the country. The event was organised by Stella Maris and Thozhamai in partnership with UNICEF.
“As per the NCRB 2016 report, the cases reported under the POCSO Act in 2014 was about 9,000, 2015 it was 15,000 and 2016 it has doubled to 36,000 cases,” she said, “About 95% of the offenders of rape cases are known to the victim. This speaks of an unsafe environment looming all around for our children. Young people need to speak up against the age-old ‘culture of silence’ which bolsters perpetrators to get away with the heinous crimes(sic).”
According to a press statement, “End Violence Against Children is a collaborative effort between UNICEF and other UN agencies, governments, civil society, young people, advocates, and champions, all focused on one thing: making the world safe for children.”
At the event, according to this report in The Hindu, Trisha also commended Ajith for acting in a film like Nerkonda Paarvai (which sends home the message, No Means No). “Hats off to a superstar like him for supporting the cause, everyone knows how much I like him and I will see the film soon,” the article quoted her as saying.
The actor will also take over UNICEF India’s Instagram page on 29th August to share her day out meeting “children and women’s groups who have been speaking up to #ENDviolence in their community.”
#UnicefIndia pic.twitter.com/S7cSY4nO9h
— Trish Krish (@trishtrashers) August 29, 2019
