Abused at 6, she suffered hell for years

Kriti Prakash is 32 years old and a doting mother of a 4-year-old son now. But her childhood, just when she was merely a 6 year old girl, was cursed. She was sexually abused by her close relative who was respected a lot in her family.

“During my childhood, like every child I went to my uncle’s home during the Christmas vacation. I was enjoying my childhood but everything changed when my aunt was admitted to hospital and my uncle abused me when I was alone. That was end of my childhood,” said Kriti Prakash narrating her story in front of the audience at HT Woman Award at Hotel Taj by Vivanta on Sunday.

“All of a sudden I felt grown up and started understanding animal inside human beings.When I was abused I was not able to understand what he was doing and what it was. All I felt was pain. Today I am 32 but still remember everything,” said Kriti.

“When I came back to home, I was dropped by that same man, who had a wicked smile on his face when he left. I narrated the incident to my sister and then we went to my mother to tell her, but she extended no support and told me to forget about it. But how could I forget? My brothers and sisters all moved ahead in their lives but I remained stranded in that night of December 25, 1990, when I was abused,” she said.

She said the night continued to haunt her. “I felt irritated and did not want to see that man ever. He snatched my childhood, my identity was gone. But he kept coming to my house and my family forced me to respect him like before. I avoided him but he would specifically talk to me in public. I hated this, but had no option but to be civil to him. I decided to end my life , because I was not able to tell my parents that I have not forgotten that humiliation,” she said adding then suddenly she decided to resist. “My parents got my point and I had overcame a major hurdle’” said Kriti Prakash.

“I was not bad in studies but that incident used hit me like a hammer, so much that I was not able to concentrate. When my marriage was fixed, I met my would-be husband and told him about what I had undergone. He said that was my past and he had no objection in marrying me. My husband became my pillar of strength and motivated me to go in for social work. He said I should work for the rights of women and children and I have been doing that,” she said.

She said she still asks her mother as to why she did not support her then. She said she was not able to help because she never knew where to take her, who would have helped them, there was no social support system to help such kids that time. She told her that she had no option but to keep things under the wraps. “From that day, we decided to share everything and she motivated me to raise voice against child abuse as my husband is supportive,” Kirti said adding,” I am proud of my husband who has supported me in all my work and given confidence to me to narrate the entire story in presence of all of you.”