The story of Pranaadhika Sinha Devburman was published on YourStory few days back. It was so empowering that we’ve decided to re-publish it on our page.
Pranaadhika shares her experience of being sexually assaulted at the mere age of 8. Her caretaker, a woman, told her – ‘let’s play a game and I’ll show you a secret place’. Horrified, she told her aunt about it to which she replied, “What have you done to deserve this?”
Pranaadhika remembers, “I was horrified by her response and I knew that I had not done anything and it was not my fault. I was a child and I had so many burning questions in my head.”
In 1998, at the age of 10, Pranaadhika started a campaign to raise awareness of child sexual abuse. She tells, “At 10, and it sounds easy, but it really wasn’t. The basic aim was to get a conversation started.”
So she began from her school, talking to her friends openly about it in a quest to spread awareness and identify a victim to support him/her. Pranaadhika shares, “We were all kids after all. Some of them did open up and expressed that they had been through some form of abuse at home or at the hands of a tuition teacher or domestic help or even by strangers”.
Pranaadhika formed an organization called “Right Now Kolkata” (name changed to ‘Elaan’ later). She visited many coffee shops, schools, book stores to talk to people about the issue. Her campaign ‘1 Million Against Child/Adult Sexual Abuse’ started in June 2015 where she visions to educate 1 million people on sexual violence. She talks about this campaign, “Anyone associated with this campaign who is from the urban population will realize that they are blessed. They have the means to speak up. They just need to get over the ‘log kya kahenge’ (What will people say?) mentality.”
Talking about her expectation generating from her noble actions, she says, “ I don’t want anything but to shock the government with these numbers, pictures, signatures, and to show them that 1 million people care about this cause and that it’s time they take notice as well. That’s the basic outcome. I also want government to make sex education mandatory in all schools. I want stringent child protection policies in place. I also strict punishment to be given to sex offenders”.
We are in awe of you, Pranaadhika.