Incest survivors share story on screen, shed ‘shame’

KOLKATA: Koel Chatterji lived in shame, guilt and denial for over two decades for a crime committed on her by someone in the family. Subjected to

sexual abuse

as a child, the trauma kept haunting her till she decided to tell her story about a decade ago. She started attending counselling sessions and workshops. The guilt and shame is history now.


“I must have been six years old when I was subjected to sexual abuse by someone in the family. I was too little to realise that I was being abused,” said Chaterji, who runs a crèche for cats in Kolkata.

Koel, along with four other survivors of incest and child sexual abuse, has come out to speak openly of her ordeal and journey to recovery in a documentary film, titled ‘

The Little Girls We Were... And the Women We Are

’, made by RAHI Foundation, which works for women survivors of incest and child sexual abuse. Chaterji was one of the survivors during a screening of the film at the

American Center

in Kolkata on Wednesday.

“Those episodes of abuse affected my life,” Chaterji told TOI. “I suffered from low self-esteem, my relationships took a beating, I lived in shame and guilt. The worst part is families tend to hush it up lest it brings a bad name to the family.”

Rina D’souza, another

survivor

, recounted that she was abused repeatedly by her own elder brother. When she confided to her parents, she was asked not to tell anybody else. “No one wants to talk about incest and child abuse,” said Anuja Gupta of RAHI Foundation, herself an incest survivor. “The trauma comes from the silence because the abused has no one to speak to, or they are asked to keep mum. Parents should create and environment where children can confide in them.”

The film captures the journey of the five women from diverse backgrounds, their ordeal, their battle to come to terms with the assault and recovery. “Though this film, we want to create a noise about this reality that no one wants to talk about,” said Ashiwini Ailawadi, co-maker of the film, along with Gupta.


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