MUMBAI: The Quint’s bid to raise aid for four-year old through the crowd funding platform BitGiving, saw phenomenal success.
On 9 October, 2015, a four-year old girl was raped and assaulted by a man known to her family. She has now been christened as ‘Choti Nirbhaya’. One of the leading digital content platforms, The Quint, started a BitGiving campaign that ran from 17 October to 16 November 2015, to collect funds in support of the child’s medical treatment and to ensure a stable future for her.
The Quint received heart-warming response to its initiative. It raised Rs 5.28 lakhs from 256 contributors in India, with an average ticket size of Rs 2,000, excelling their target of Rs 5 lakhs by flying margin. The raised funds will be allocated towards the girl’s recovery and to support her family in this time of need.
Sharing her delight over the success of the campaign, The Quint CEO and co founder Ritu Kapur said, “The ‘Choti Nirbhaya’ case has turned the spotlight yet again on the deplorable state of women’s safety in India’s capital. The four-year-old girl has undergone a series of surgeries at New Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital but her parents have been told that she will not be able to bear a child as an adult. The parents are anxious that she should emerge out of this incident as a self-sufficient adult and to ensure this it is imperative that the child is educated well. Our fund-raising efforts were primarily targetted to this end and we are pleased at the generous contributions that have been made to help Choti Nirbhaya have a better and brighter future.”
The Delhi government also acknowledged The Quint’s reportage of the incident and applauded its efforts to raise funds for the girl’s education and recovery. “The Delhi government is working to cut short the procedure, so that the victim and her family can get the help at the earliest. We are thankful to The Quint for bringing this issue to our knowledge. We complement the organisation for pursuing the case diligently,” said Nagendra Sharma, a spokesperson of the Delhi Government.
Choti Nirbhaya’s story struck a chord with renowned personalities from across various fields. Singer Anupam Roy, actor Raveena Tandon, director Mahesh Bhatt, musician Raghu Ram, and TV anchor Richa Anirudh appealed to the readers of The Quint to come out and donate generously so that the victim could aspire for a financially secure future as an adult. Their pleas, along with those of the girl’s family, have elicited a positive response from the people of India as they made significant contributions on the crowd-funding platform, BitGiving.
