It’s been two days of pride and joy tinged with sadness and a feeling that you’ve been given short shrift. A feeling you can’t shake off. I am part of the team that won Best Film in the Education category at the 65th National Film Awards.
Our film, The Little Girls We Were... And the Women We Are, is a labour of years of hard work put in by Rahi Foundation that works in a field that no one wants to talk about – that of child sexual abuse. Even when we discuss cases that make national headlines like Asifa’s, we talk about the politics around it, and not the crime in itself. The subject makes us uncomfortable. It makes us want to say, hush, it never happened. Hush, let’s not talk about it, let’s bury it and let it lie there. Because talking about it makes it too real. Five very brave women from around the country said enough. They chose to come on camera (no hiding behind silhouettes) and tell their story. Rahi has worked with many such adult survivors of child sexual abuse and helped them heal.