Born out of personal trauma, writer's platform aims to support victims of child sexual abuse

Sonal Kellogg, a writer by profession, is all set to start a website called SABFree (speak up and be free) to ensure that no child has to undergo what she underwent when she was young – sexual abuse.

India is home to a great number of the cases of child sexual abuse happening in the world, with one child raped every three hours. In spite of the Indian government enacting The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) in 2012, actual instances of child sexual abuse (CSA) are much higher than reported. This is because of the social stigma attached to CSA, and also due to the lack of awareness among the public. Talking about this with The Better India, Sonal said,

The biggest weapon in the hands of the abuser is silence. At most times, people keep silent about it for years, and the pattern continues. What happened to me also happens to someone else. But the feeling of brokenness (among the survivors) heals best by speaking.

Though Sonal doesn’t remember much about how and when the ordeal started, she remembers being abused for a long time. She told India Times that the torment started when she was very young, and went on for close to ten years. Like most kids, she too kept it a secret for a long time, until she decided to come out and talk about it. What's more, she is writing a book about what she went through, and it has all been possible because of the constant support of her daughters.

Sonal wants to give back to society what has now been possible for her because of her family. She wants to provide a similar kind of platform to other survivors of CSA through her website. The website would also act as an interactive medium, where people can come together, share their experiences, and converse with each other. This is very crucial, as it would help a great deal in dealing with the trauma of abuse and in overcoming it.

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