Rana Uppalapati can read from expressions whether a child had ever faced abuse.

He has, the 37-year-old entrepreneur says, has been through it himself. So he has set out on a three-month-long mission to spread the word on “good touch” and “bad touch” among schoolchildren and their parents.

Rana would roller-skate the 6,000km he plans to cover. But while he would skim over the road along the golden quadrilateral, he intends to go right into the heart of the matter in his interactions.

“As a child I was abused. It is difficult for children to open up and tell their parents. They are confused and often ridden with guilt. I have taken up this initiative to interact with the children and parents as I move through the cities, towns and villages,” Rana, 37, said after reaching Mumbai from Bangalore on Wednesday. “Even if a child is privileged it is not a guarantee against child abuse.”

While Rana was skating towards Mumbai, a CBSE topper was gang-raped in Haryana. On Monday night, a teenager was raped in Palghar, Maharashtra, outside a Ganesh puja pandal.

A student from a Dehradun boarding school complained she was gang-raped. On Sunday, the director of a school in Pune was arrested for showing porn to a boy student of the school.

The team plays a short film, Komal, by the Childline India Foundation in the local language, depending on the state.

Rana says he has seen expressions change among children when he broached the subject.

“When I see a student reacting differently, I alert the teacher or any counsellor present who can take up the matter with the child and address the issue,” he said.

Since leaving Bangalore on skates on September 5, Rana has covered around 1,000km and plans to complete the remainder of the stretch over the next 80 days.

Surat, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Jaipur, Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, Allahabad, Calcutta, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Chennai and Hossur are on his list of major cities, before he finishes at Bangalore towards the end of November.

On November 3, Rana is expected to reach Calcutta before turning south.

The mission has also set a target of raising funds for supporting the education of 25,000 girls in the country, with the backing of NGOs like Nanhi Kali and IIMPACT (formed by the alumni of IIM Ahmedabad) and Titan ECHO.

“Many state governments provide free education to the girl child. Providing free education is not enough. Many girls do not have access to uniform, innerwear, protection for menstrual hygiene and schoolbags. I hope to raise funds that could help in solving these problems,” Rana, who has been skating since the age of eight, said.

“This year also marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Tata Group. We have started Titan ECHO (Educate to Carry Her Onwards) to address the problems faced by girls in getting a formal education,” N.E. Sridhar, associate vice-president and head (corporate sustainability) at Titan, said.