Life Skills &value Education – Class-IX – Unit 6: Body Ownership

What is Body Ownership?

Young children can comprehend the concept of ownership of things like their toys from an early age, but they are not clear about it when it comes to their bodies. The concept of body ownership slowly and steadily with age evolves into personal and physical boundaries and privacy. Young children are dependent on others for their daily chores that often involve a touch from others. This dependence leads to confusion among them about who owns their bodies. Even as they grow and become more independent, their early childhood memories of their dependability on others create confusion in them about the concept of body ownership. The abuser is well aware of this vulnerability of our children. Children must be taught from an early age that they are the boss of their bodies and assert their feelings when someone touches them.

There are eight step safety rules:-

Step 1:  make and follow safety plans.

Step 2: be aware of your surroundings and your body language.

Step 3:  listen to your feelings.

Step 4: say “No!” to the person doing the unsafe thing.

Step 5:  getaway.

Step 6: if physically overpowered, use self- defence techniques to get away.  

Step 7: talk to a trusted adult.

Step 8:  keep telling till someone believes you.

Abuse and boundaries:

In order to implement these rules we will have to understand further about abuse and boundaries.

Abuse is the harm caused by a person onto another person, whether they’re adults or children. The person who abuses can be an acquaintance or a stranger. Someone who abuses is called an abuser. An abuser is a person who is in a position of superiority. The superiority can be in terms of age, physical power, money power, etc. Abuse, irrespective of the abuser, is always wrong. There are various types of abuses like:

1. Physical

These are actions done on purpose to physically hurt, harm or injure someone. For example, a person, beats a child with a ruler on the legs or back for not doing work.

 2. Emotional

This is also called psychological or mental abuse. It means doing something on purpose that we know will emotionally or psychologically harm someone.

3. Physical Boundary

A boundary is a stop sign! Physical boundaries are invisible that differentiate people from each other. The different forms or types of boundaries include physical, emotional, spiritual, financial, and relational. Different people have different physical boundaries. We may like it when our mummy hugs us but not when an auntie hugs us. Personal boundaries are about how we let others treat us. It is very important to set personal boundaries. When we set personal boundaries. We tell others how to treat us. This helps them to be respectful towards our body, our feelings and our things. So, if our friend has done something that hurts us, we must tell them how it made us feel and to not to do it again.

Telling your friends how you feel is the right thing to do. If they care about you they will stop doing the hurtful things. If they continue to say or do hurtful things, they’re not your friends. Just like our body, our physical and personal boundaries belong to us. Everyone has personal and physical boundaries. Just as we want others to respect our boundaries, we should also respect others’ boundaries. For example, when we are standing in a line for the morning school assembly, and someone falls on us, or when the doctor asks us in the presence of our loved ones some personal problems for medical purposes. Our loved and trusted ones are our parents, teachers, grandparents and our good friends. Boundaries are different for different people.

Some like to sit or stand very close to whomsoever they are with, others don’t .Just as boundaries are different for different people, the same person can have different boundaries for different people in their life. We have smaller boundaries with our loved and trusted ones, and our boundaries change as we grow older or as situations change For example: – Ravi, the carom champ, asked “Sir, is it true that persons with disabilities can be easily targeted by abusers?” “Unfortunately, that is true. That is why when the victim is a person with disability, the punishment for the abuser is always more stringent,” replied Sir. Finally, he concluded, “most people are good at heart and helpful, but we have to be careful when it comes to our safety.

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