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The secret everybody knows.

Article Excerpt
My need to explore the subject of childhood sexual abuse was always well disguised as academic. From the juncture at which my silence suddenly spilled to enraged speech, I spoke of it in third person, I ranted, I wrote, I filmed.

During my undergraduate studies in journalism in a women's college in Bangalore, India, I wished to write an article in our college magazine. As my class tried to help me pick a subject, I made a spontaneous suggestion, which was actually the result of much agonizing. It was the first time I professed my interest in the subject. Childhood sexual abuse (CSA), I said. Some eyes sparked, some evaded, some were polite, but the vote was unanimous--do it, they said, but it will be difficult.

I proceeded to identify and speak to NGOs that had done, or were doing work on the subject--and came up with Samvada, Bangalore, India, which had done a recent and rare study of CSA in high school students, 47 per cent of the girls had been abused, I reported. Abusers are very often persons known to the child, including family members, a person the child trusts, making the abuse that much more traumatic, I said. I spoke to psychologists and professors, and...

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