One of the most prominent trend on Change.org has been of people from across different parts of the country demanding solutions for child sexual abuse.

When a 6-year-old girl in Bengaluru was sexually abused by her teacher in school, Pavithra Shetty, mother of a toddler, started a campaign on Change.org asking the Education Minister of Karnataka to issue directives to impose security measures in all schools in the state.

The signatures on her petition grew to a lakh and a half, media started reporting about this and for the first time ever, guidelines for child safety in school were issued in Karnataka.

Shortly after this, Maithreyi Nadapana, mother of 2 children from Bengaluru started a campaign asking Karnataka’s education Minister to ensure involvement of parents in monitoring security measures in schools.

With more than 35,000 people supporting her, she has had several meetings with supporters, community, the Minister’s office and continues to fight for this demand.

In West Bengal. Kamalika, a teenager, was sexually assaulted in her school in Kolkata. When Kamalika tried to raise this she was bullied and harassed so much about the issue that she committed suicide.

Kamalika’s cousin Smita started a campaign on Change.org to ensure students who face sexual assault are provided counselling to help them cope with the trauma instead of ignoring or shunning the incident.

Rajya Sabha MP, Rajeev Chandrasekhar has started a campaign asking Prime Minister Modi to “Commit to a Roadmap to Protect Our Children from Sexual Abuse”. This petition has been gathering a lot of public support and already has more than a lakh signatures.

(Written by Preethi Herman, India Country Lead of Change.org, this was originally published in the Indian Express)