Arpan’s Child Safety Week 2026: ‘Ruk Jao Varna POCSO Pakad Lega’ Warns Child Sexual Abusers

Child sexual abuse often happens in plain sight. In homes, in schools, on buses, in tuition classes and on phone screens. The abuser can be anyone, even someone the child knows and trusts. Adults are usually close by. What keeps offenders safe is our silence. 

It is time to break it.

Some adults do not recognise abuse when they see it. Some sense that it is wrong but find it easier to look away. Some wave it off as a “harmless joke” or an “affectionate hug”. 

Abusers count on that silence. This Child Safety Week, Arpan, the Mumbai-based non-profit working to end child sexual abuse, is breaking it with a message aimed squarely at offenders: Ruk Jao Varna POCSO Pakad Lega (Stop, or POCSO will catch you).

The numbers behind the warning

A 2025 study published in The Lancet estimates that nearly one in three girls and about one in seven boys in India experience sexual violence before they turn 18. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recorded 69,191 POCSO cases in 2024, about 189 a day, or nearly eight every hour. That is over a third of all crimes against children that year, but still a fraction of the abuse that actually happens. That gap is where silence lives and this is what needs to change.

Eight years of a growing movement

Arpan started Child Safety Week in 2019. This public awareness campaign has since grown into a nationwide movement that brings parents, schools, NGOs, corporates and government bodies together to talk openly and act for children’s safety. Last year, the campaign had a reach of 173 million.

The week is timed with four dates that already ask the world to think about children: Children’s Day on 14 November, the UN’s World Day for the Prevention of and Healing from Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Violence on 18 November, the World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse on 19 November and World Children’s Day on 20 November.

The law protects children. It also catches abusers

This year’s message has been two years in the making. In 2024, the campaign said every child in India is #ProtectedByPOCSO and began shifting the focus to offenders. In 2025, #POCSOPakadLega pushed that shift further. This year, the promise of protection becomes a direct warning to offenders: Ruk Jao Varna POCSO Pakad Lega. Stop, or the law will catch you.

The campaign creatives show it simply. White line-art silhouettes of children appear in familiar scenes: a school bus and a mirror selfie, with a handcuff motif as a reminder of accountability. The settings are ordinary on purpose. Abuse happens in everyday places, and so does prevention.

Call it what it is

Abuse hides in vague words. If a behaviour has no name, a child can’t describe it and an adult can’t spot it. A bystander can be told it was “nothing”. Offenders lean on exactly that, passing off abuse as affection, a game or a joke. So this year’s campaign names six behaviours plainly:

Galat tareeke se chhuna: touching a child inappropriately

Galat nazar se dekhna: looking at a child with sexual intent

Galat photos ya videos maangna: asking a child for sexual photos or videos

Galat photos ya videos kheechna: taking sexual photos or videos of a child

Galat photos ya videos dikhana: showing a child sexual photos or videos

Galat photos ya videos dekhna, save ya share karna: viewing, saving or sharing sexual photos or videos of a child

To know more about these offences, visit: www.arpan.org.in

Every one of them is a crime

None of these is a grey area. In India, every form of child sexual abuse is a punishable offence under the POCSO Act and cases are registered under specific sections of the Act depending on whether they are contact sexual abuse, non contact sexual abuse or sexual abuse happening online. In 2024, 20,845 cases were registered under Section 7, which covers sexual assault, including inappropriate touching. Section 11 deals with sexual harassment, including looking at a child with sexual intent, asking for sexual images and showing a child such material, and it saw 3,502 cases. Under the POCSO Act, using a child to create sexual images is punishable under Section 13, and viewing, saving or sharing such material, known as Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Material (CSEAM), is punishable under Section 14 & 15. In 2024, 500 such cases were registered.   These are the totals for each section, not only for the situations described here. In addition, cases of publishing or transmitting sexually explicit material involving children is also an offence under Section 67B of the IT Act. Such cases made up nearly nine in ten of all cybercrime cases against children in 2024. 

 What’s happening this week

Offline, the campaign launched on 13 November with the flag-off of six Mumbai Metro coaches carrying campaign messages in collaboration with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and Maha Mumbai Metro Operation Corporation Limited (MMMOCL). Shri Kanhuraj Bagate, IAS, Managing Director, MMMOCL, was the Chief Guest, alongside Ms Pooja Taparia, Founder and CEO, Arpan.

Actor Vidya Balan, Arpan’s Goodwill ambassador, continues to be the face of the campaign. She kicks off the campaign online with a launch video that speaks straight to offenders. She calls out the excuses offenders hide behind: jokes, affection, gifts, friendship, family ties. She states plainly that each of the six behaviours mentioned through the campaign is a punishable offence, and ends with a firm warning “Ruk Jao Varna POCSO Pakad Lega!”

Through the week, #RukJaoVarnaPOCSOPakadLega takes its warning into the places Mumbai passes through every day: the Mumbai Metro train, branded in partnership with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on lines 2A and 7; 28 buses with external branding and 1900+ buses with internal branding with Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) and Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NNMT) across Mumbai, Thane, and Navi Mumbai; digital bus shelters at select locations across Mumbai; digital screens at Western Railway stations; billboards and digital signages along the Western Express Highway; 1700+ digital screens in residential societies. Online, 6 films carrying campaign messages run on YouTube and other social media platforms, targeting relevant channels to reach the core audience segment. An influencer outreach campaign will mobilise digital engagement and encourage public participation across India.

The message will stay in public view beyond the week. Once schools reopen on 23 November after Diwali break, more than 100 schools will display campaign banners, so the conversation reaches families and school communities .

What every adult can do

The responsibility for abuse lies with the person who chooses to commit it, and that is where the message must land. Every abuser should know these behaviours are punishable under the law, and that they will not go scot-free. That message carries furthest when adults take a stand: when they refuse to excuse, ignore or stay silent about child sexual abuse. Join Child Safety Week by sharing the six messages with your family, your child’s school, your workplace and your community groups, and by making a video or sharing Arpan’s campaign materials on Instagram: @arpan_csa, FaceBook: Arpan, Linkedin: ARPAN, X: @Arpan_CSA, Youtube: @arpancsa . Listen to a child who confides in you, and believe them. Speak up when something around a child feels wrong, even if the person involved is someone you know. Abusers have long relied on adults looking away. This Child Safety Week, all eyes are on them.

Published on: Friday, November 13, 2026, 09:51 PM IST