Trigger Warning: Sexual Abuse

“Do you want to play with me?” He whispered in my ear.

Eight years old naive me, agreed to play with him.  As we walked towards his room, I felt his hands on my butt. I pushed him away because it just did not feel right. Before I could gather all my strength, he was on me.

All I remembered from that night was him saying, “you are tasty”. I wish I knew that it was the beginning of a nightmare. 

He was none other than one of my first cousins. The assault continued for the next seven years. Sometimes, he managed to pull me into his bedroom, and on other days, he barged into the bathroom as I bathed.

Family gatherings gave him a good chance to spend more time with me, in the car or in my bedroom. This horrifying memory has overpowered every other happy memory of childhood. 

I could never seek help because of the obvious societal taboo. 

As a child, I wish I had known about 1098; the children's helpline number that has been in existence for 3 decades. Maybe then I would have been spared seven long years of suffering.

This is my story and the story of millions of other children in India. It's time to change this story by spreading awareness about Childline 1098 because child sexual abuse continues.

Further, with the rampant increase in access to the internet, children today are more prone to online abuse as well. Between 2017 and 2020, 24 lakh cases of online child sexual abuse were reported in India. According to NCRB, of all the reported cases, 38.1% of cases are around child sexual abuse of the all the reported cases.

Spreading awareness among children about 1098 - the helpline they can call whenever they are in any kind of distress is the need of the hour. And who is better than BYJUs, India's biggest online learning app to help me spread the word?  

Here I’m seeking your support, asking BYJU’s 

• Add child helpline, 1098, as a welcome pop-up in every login by Nov 14’22. 
• To the starter kit that is sent to the new members. 
  
  Please sign my petition to save at least one child out of 150 million children that use BYJU’s platform from suffering from sexual abuse.