What happens when a child returns home scared of even more physical violence and abuse, when he/she faced the same in school? It’s not just a horrific scenario but the poignant reality of the world. According to WHO estimates, more than 80 to 95% of children suffer physical punishments in their household. We live in a world where physical violence has become rather the normative behaviour in order to ‘discipline’ or ‘govern’ children, but what it ends up doing is something which we almost never care to stop and think about.

At an age where children should learn to appreciate their rights and learn to fight for them, we end up teaching them the denial of their rights. The citizens we expect to lead the world in the future, end up scarred from their own harrowing experiences. Over 150 million girls and 70 million boys experienced forced sexual violence or some form of sexual assault in 2002 alone.

Violence and abuse against children has been there for a long time and also appears to have the recognition of a social evil. However, the real face of its long term impacts and deep penetration into societies has only come to the fore now that people have started taking violence seriously.

In this video, made as a part of UNICEF’s #EndViolence Against Children initiative, celebrities including Farhan Akhtar, Virender Sehwag, Madhuri Dixit and Rahul Bose tell you the perils of overlooking the form of violence which kills more children than any other disease in the world. They have taken the pledge to take note and work towards a healthy happy life for the children and expect the same from us. Take the pledge, speak up and raise concerns. It’s time to realize that #ItStartsWithMe!