Who are we?
Nakshatra is a registered (Reg No: 836/12), non-governmental, non-profit organisation, committed to work against trafficking and sexual violence in India. We have established a Rape Crisis Centre (RCC) in Chennai. Since 2012, we have been working with victims and their families in many downtrodden slum communities of Chennai. Our programmes and services are designed to meet a wide range of issues that need to be addressed and acknowledged.
In the Devnagri script, the word ‘Naksha’ means to approach and ‘tra’ means to protect. Our organization Nakshatra aims at approaching people about societal issues and problems and protecting them from it.
We are especially committed to prevent Child Sexual Abuse (CSA). We are involved in spreading awareness and empowering communities, families and children themselves to resist and report CSA. Rehabilitation and Recovery from CSA also form an integral part of our program.
Our Vision
Our objective is to address the issue of sexual violence in India, through formal and informal education. Only through awareness and social support can a victim prevent or overcome sexual violence.
Our History
Nakshatra was founded by Dr. Albones Raj and Ms.Sherin Bosko in 2012. As sociologists they were dismayed to find the increase in the number of Indians who are suffering from emotional, physical and sexual violence, with many of the cases being preventable.
Some of the main reasons behind these problems was inadequate information and poor communication, low self-esteem, lack of education, poverty, ignorance, poor decision making skills and lack of problem-solving skills.
Hence, Nakshatra came forth to provide awareness on these issues amongst the general public, especially amongst women, transgenders and children.
Our target audience includes schools, colleges, institutions for children, other NGOs, Government Organisations, slum communities and even Police stations.
So far, Nakshatra has reached out to over 1857 children and adolescents, 455 teachers and 3714 parents, 247 police personals, 213 doctors and 3700 social workers in over 35 cities, towns and villages in India. Criminologists from Madras University, social workers and psychologists of various colleges like Loyola, Queen Marys, Stella Maris, Presidency etc and esteemed lawyers are also associated with us.
Nakshatra aims at being a need based organisation. Since we are still young as an organisation, we are in the process of raising funds for the cause.
Mission
We focus on eliminating and preventing sexual violence. We give equal importance to helping survivors deal with the trauma. We also aim to prevent children from entering into the flesh trade and to rescue trafficked victims.
In our RCC at Chennai, we provide free legal, medical and counselling assistance to a survivor of abuse. It is very important for us to assist the survivor according to his or her needs.
As mentioned earlier, we hold orientation sessions in various social forums in order to spread awareness against sexual violence and trafficking. We try to make the most of the advanced technology of today, to reach out to many more victims, families and communities. This website is a part of this endeavour. Here, we have tried to provide information to victims and their near and dear ones, in an effort to spread awareness about sexual violence. There is also information about legal rights of victims of sexual harassment or sexual violence. This emphasizes the fact that the perpetrator of sexual crimes, and not the victim, is solely responsible.
Nakshatra 