Kalki Koechlin speaks out about her trauma as a child sexual abuse survivor.
Actress Kalki Koechlin shared her personal story of being a child sexual abuse survivor (CSA) in advance of an Annual Stakeholder’s Conference on Child Sexual Abuse held in Mumbai recently. She was present to support Rahul Bose’s NGO’s Project H.E.A.L., a program designed to create dialogue between parents and teachers to address the myths surrounding sexual abuse.
CSA remains a cultural taboo and prevalent issue in India. According to a 2007 study conducted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in association with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), one in two children in India are sexually abused, whether in urban or rural areas. The study covered 13 states across the country with a sample size of 12,447, and found that more than 53 percent of children in India are sexually abused. Suffice to say, the findings indicate only a portion of the men and women who have found the courage to disclose their suffering.
In an interview with NDTV, Koechlin said, “Although this is an important issue and I really wanted to talk about it, it’s not about giving you my history as a person who has gone through sexual abuse. It’s just to put forward the idea that there are so many of us that have gone through it and most of the people that I know and that I am close to, especially close friends of mine who are women, have gone through some form of CSA. There is so much of it that I think it’s not something that should be ignored. We know how in our families, we brush it under the carpet because of social, cultural pressure; we don’t talk about these things.”
Koechlin went on to explain why speaking out on the controversial topic isn’t enough. “The problem about talking about it publicly is that there's also the danger that it just becomes a shocking headline," she said. "And somebody who has gone through CSA is not a headline. That's a reality they have lived with all of their life, and there have to be other forms of expressing it and talking about it. And of course, there has to be government support and laws implemented."
We wish Koechlin all the best in her endeavours toward eliminating CSA.
Featured Image: Images.indianexpress.com
Nidhi Shrivastava
Author
Nidhi Shrivastava (@shnidhi) is a Ph.D. candidate in the English department at Western University and works as an adjunct professor in at Sacred Heart University. She holds double masters in South Asian Studies and Women's Studies. Her research focuses on Hindi film cinema, censorship, the figure o...
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