Indian Bollywood Actor Ayushmann Khurrana has been recently appointed as UNICEF’s Celebrity Advocate for their global campaign EVAC (Ending Violence Against Children) and he is fully committed to bringing much-needed attention and awareness to this priority issue. He says brutality against minors is unacceptable but preventable.
Ayushmann says: “As a prominent UNICEF lawyer, it is my job to promote the rights of children and support UNICEF to defend these rights with my voice and my influence. One of the main themes I support is ending violence against children in order to advocate that violence against children is unacceptable and preventable. “ He also added that “Violence against children is widespread, but how often do we hear it being reported or discussed? I will draw attention to this problem and make violence against children visible. We need more and more people who recognize that violence is happening, take steps to end violence and report it. “
Violence against children threatens not only children’s survival and health but also their emotional well-being and future prospects. Violence against children is widespread and pervasive and remains a harsh reality for millions of children in India. Over half of the world’s children have experienced severe violence and 64 per cent of these are in South Asia.
On a related note, Ayushmann was recently named as one of the most influential people by the TIME magazine list. Reacting to the same, the actor’s college professor Archana R Singh expressed how incredibly proud she is to have taught him in the past.
Ayushmann has also been distraught reading about the Hathras and Balrampur horrific gangrape and killings that have shaken our country. Ayushmann was prompt to say, “Shocked, shattered and devastated. After Hathras, now another gangrape and murder at Balrampur! It’s barbaric, inhuman and calls for the most severe punishment to the guilty. When will this stop? We are failing every single day to protect the women of our country. We have to do more than just protecting women. We have to raise better sons!”
UNICEF works with government and civil society actors to strengthen the capacity of the workforce to better protect children from violence. This includes working with universities to begin or improve degree programmes in social service-related areas, and to integrate child protection specific modules into existing courses such as with the police and judiciary. UNICEF also works with those already working to ensure the continued access to new tools, and support that the resources to implement them are available.
