Sapna (name changed) was still reeling from the shock of her brother’s suicide when she was sent to live with her paternal grandmother and uncle for her father was ill and mother had to go to work to put food on the table. Her uncle abused her for years, but her kin refused to believe her. She lived scared and isolated, until one day it all came out in school, and she was shifted to a home under the Women and Child Development Department. A couple of years later, she moved into the department’s after-care home for those above the age of 18. By this time, a deeply traumatised Sapna had tried to end her life multiple times.
She finally caught a break when psychologists visited the home as part of an ‘Aftercare’ programme implemented by the department with technical support of the Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust, a unit of HLL Lifecare Ltd., to prepare children above 15 and young adults above 18 for independent living.
