Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a universal problem with grave life-long outcomes. Child sexual abuse occurs in a variety of settings including home, school or work. The effects of child sexual abuse can lead to depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety,tendency to further victimization in adulthood and physical injury to the child. Child sexual abuse laws in India have been enacted as part of the nation's child protection policies. The Parliament of India passed the ‘Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Bill, 2011′ regarding child sexual abuse on 22nd May 2012 into Act. A pre experimental one group pre test- post test research design was adopted for the study and 30 school teachers were selected using simple random sampling technique. Semi structured questionnaire was used to assess the level of knowledge regarding POCSO Act and planned a teaching programme on knowledge regarding POCSO Act to the school teachers for about 30 minutes which was followed by the post test. The study findings showed that the pre test mean score was 11.06 with standard deviation of 1.9 and post test mean score was 20.8 with standard deviation of 2.23. The paired ‘t’ value was 13.41 which revealed that there was a highly statistically significant difference between the pre test and post test level of knowledge at p<0.001.
Child sexual abuse, POCSO Act, School teachers
