Nikita Raje – A Child rights activist and an Advocate

We have always given a thought to fight or to stand for a cause. Maybe some of us have even tried to make a change. But most of us never go beyond the thinking stage. We always think about what to do, how to do it, when to do it. So many thoughts! Questions! But only some of us have the courage to stand up and step out. Today we are sharing one such story of a girl who not just thought but share takes the courage and stands for a cause. She’s working every day for our children, our society, and our country. She hopes that one day we’ll overcome this.

Nikita Raje, a girl with a beautiful heart and kind soul from Pune, Maharashtra, an advocate, a child rights activist, a child sexual abuse survivor, pursuing her Master’s in the same field and influencing many lives. She’s also a part of Bachpan Save the Innocence and MSAAW. Along with that she volunteers at the legal line of Aks foundation and teaches underprivileged kids at DoorStepSchool. You can always find her with a cup of coffee or a book or both. Beer and wine are soul drinks for her and her mom’s varan bhat toop is her soul food. A very proud plant mom and completely in love with her boyfriend’s cats. She also likes books and statement earrings. She knows it’s a weird combo! But it’s the real side of her. She’s trying every day to make some change in our society and we feel that her one step is influencing many people’s lives to come up and take a stand for their child or for their own lives. 

She always wanted to participate in some social activities, but she never really gave it a serious thought until last year. Lockdown was difficult for all of us but especially for her because her mental health took a very serious dip and she did attempt suicide at one point, snapping out of the reverie at the last moment and saving herself. Seeing the mark on her neck where she tried to hang herself was an eye-opener. She had two options- to wallow in self-pity or get her life together and make a difference, something that she always wanted to do. Moreover, if she would have given up her abuser would have won again. 

She shared her story for the first time with Bachpan Save the Innocence on an Instagram live and as fate had it, Rahul the founder himself had decided to host the live session. He had stopped doing it but somehow ended up hosting her story! They got around to talking and She joined Bachpan. Rahul has become her family by now. In mid-January, her post on HOB came out, and the overwhelming response she got was full of love and support. But along with the love and support came hundreds of similar stories. It was like seeing herself in all of them. That was the turning point in her life, “To help people and spread awareness. Being someone whom I needed at that point.”.

Her motive behind joining the social activities is really simple. She feels even if one child is helped or an adult survivor, then, she will have success. She always wants to be there for survivors. She wants to be someone who could and would have helped her when she needed them the most but wasn’t there. She doesn’t want anyone to go through that phase which she had faced. Of course, in the end, she wants herself, Rahul, Akash, and everyone else working in the field of CSA out of jobs because this evil doesn’t exist anymore, but there’s still a long way to go. 

Her own journey doesn’t inspire her as much as it only pushes her to do better and create a safer environment for the upcoming generation of kids. She doesn’t want anyone to face the same problems. There are too many similar, almost identical stories like her, just with different names, ages, places, and people. The bottom line is the same for every case – “Abuse is not okay!”

She shared that her daily motivation and inspiration are the people around her. Especially children. She never fathomed what trauma she had actually been through and has just started coming to terms with how much damage it has done. If she can help other children avoid the same situation, she’ll gladly do so thousand times over. When we asked her to share a message to the people who are inspired by her she told us that, “Inspiration is a big weight to carry. I’m just working for a cause close to my heart. Seriously, just a normal girl.”

She hopes that one day she’ll end this duty by happily saying it’s the end of this evil. We can only say she’s the perfect example of “Learn from your own ups downs and change your pain to paint many lives.”

A special message from Nikita

“We say awareness is the key. No! Every one of you is aware of child sexual abuse. It is what you do with the awareness that matters. Sit with the children around you and teach them. Please! If you think teaching them about private parts would be uncomfortable, remember YOU are making it uncomfortable not them. So set aside your squeamishness and start talking. It’s never too early to talk about these things. Teach them about penis, vagina, consent, boundaries. It’s not going to taint them but help them.”