PIONEERS | SEEMA
Speaking for the Voiceless
SHRUTI KAPOOR DRIVES A MOVEMENT TO PROTECT GIRLS AND WOMEN FROM SEXUAL ASSAULT AND ABUSE
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very physician makes a commitment to placing the welfare of others ahead of their own. But in the face of a pandemic, doctors and other healthcare workers have found themselves exhausted, and emotionally and physically drained. A successful economist at World Bank, she was looking for her next career role when the 2012 Delhi
32 | SEEMA.COM | MARCH 2021
SEEMA KUMAR gang rape of Nirbhaya came as a wake-up call. “I remember waking up and reading about it and just feeling a sense of anger, frustration and helplessness,” she says. Kapoor also vividly recalled an incident from her own life – abuse she had experienced as a teenage girl at the hands of a relative, which she had kept secret. “It took me my entire life, to
come out publicly and speak about the abuse that I had experienced,” says Kapoor. Raised in Kanpur, a small industrial city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Kapoor grew up in a close knit family that put a high value on education. Her introduction to gender equality came early in life from her mom. Unlike many South Asian families, where boys and men get the best deal, Kapoor’s
