"Child Molestation." What comes to your mind when you hear these words? Shock? Disgust? Sadness...? But if you're a victim, a whole host of other words come to mind. Shame. Pain. Guilt. Hatred... And victims there are many. According to a report by UNICEF, almost 53% of children in India face sexual abuse of some kind at least once in their lives. That means almost 1 in 2 Indians have been molested or worse, raped as children. Wrap your mind around that. The most disgusting thing about child sex abuse is that in most cases, the perpetrator is known to the victim. And the most horrifying fact about it is that most perpetrators have no set gender, age or criminal history. Anyone could be a monster. We wanted to show just how prevalent this heinous crime is in our country. So, we reached out to friends and acquaintances across India and asked them to anonymously share their own stories. And share they did. We received dozens of horrifying accounts of child sexual abuse from many scarred adults. We are sharing some of them with you. Their stories will leave you in a cold sweat.

We were kids. She was two years elder to me and ‘Sexy ghar ghar’ was her favourite game. She always became the husband and made me the wife. She would often kiss me while playing. I felt uncomfortable, but she was also a girl, so I ignored the awkwardness.

Once, she asked me to wear a skirt and dress up. I remember I wore a blue skirt and a blue top with yellow flowers. She tried to kiss me on the lips. I was just confused as to what was happening. I never told anyone about this until this day.

I was 17-years-old. I went to a homoeopathic doctor with my Mom as I was unwell. He had to do a check-up, so I was asked to come to the corner of the room where a small bed was kept. I lied down and he started moving the stethoscope around my breasts. Within seconds, he slid his hand inside my shirt. Shocked, I shouted, “What the hell are you doing?” This alerted my Mom sitting in the room and she quickly came up to me. We ran out of that place.