This story by Snigdha Sinha was first published on YourStory .
In 1998, At an age when most kids are still learning the meaning of the term, 10 year old Pranaadhika Sinha Devburman was campaigning to raise awareness about child sexual abuse.
She was sexually abused at the age of 8 by the caretaker of her building, who lured her down by asking her to a game of badminton.
When she told her aunt about it, she was faced with disbelief. Her aunt behaved as if it was her own fault.
She couldn’t tell her parents as they were divorced and she thought it would just make things worse between them. This isolation led her to start asking friends in school about their experiences of abuse at the hands of relatives, teachers and strangers.
Using her experience to start the awareness organisation ‘Elaan’, she went around giving talks in schools and coffee shops, and her efforts were covered in the Telegraph when she was just 16!
One June 1, 2015, she started a campaign to educate 1 million people on sexual violence and prevention. She hopes that people learn to speak up and get over the ‘ log kya kahenge ?’ mentality. She wants to make sex education mandatory in school, wants stringent child protection policies and strict punishments for sex offenders. Judging by her passion, we’re sure she’s going to make it happen.