Trigger Warning: Content About Sexual Abuse

I was 4-years-old when I was sexually abused. It was a trusted family member. I was too confused to know what was happening.

When I was 8, the caretaker of my apartment molested me by pretending to play a game. My aunt laughed at me when I tried to talk to her.

What happened to me continues to happen to thousands of children across the country. In these horrible times, no child is safe.

That’s why I want schools in India to have compulsory Personal Safety Education.

I was abused till I was 19 years old. But not one person noticed what I was going through. My education suffered and they blamed me. They didn’t see the depression. They didn’t even see the physical signs.

Throughout my childhood I kept looking for a safe space. But it isn’t easy to talk about abuse in India.

Children must learn how to be safe, to identify and avoid predators. Teachers and staff must learn how to identify signs of abuse and provide counselling and parents must learn how to protect their children.

And should a child ever face abuse or even the possibility of abuse, they will have a teacher they can trust and safely turn to. A teacher who won’t laugh it off, who won’t ignore the warning signs, who will be there for the child.

I’m asking the two largest school boards in India - CBSE and ISCE to make Personal Safety Education a compulsory part of the syllabus. This will impact lakhs of children in India.

Sign my petition now so that I can show the Government, the CBSE and ISCE that lakhs of Indians want their children to be safe.

Help me make this country a little bit safer for children.