Shrenu Parikh
Shrenu ParikhInstagram

Ishqbaaz actress Shrenu Parikh, who is seen playing the role of Gauri in the daily soap, has opened up about her horrific incident when she was molested at the age of 6 while travelling with her grandfather in a bus.

In an Instagram post, the actress shared how her abuser touched her inappropriately but she didn't tell her grandfather about it since she was terrified. She also expressed her regret for not speaking up at that time.

Her post came after she did a track for the TV show subjected to women empowerment in an attempt to encourage women to raise their voices against sexual harassment.

Read the full-unedited text of Shrenu Parikh's Instagram post here:

"As a kid I used to spend my vacations at my grandparents' town!

Those days we travelled in a local bus! And when the seats used to be occupied my grandfather used to request someone to share the seat for me! Similarly one uncle offered to nanu that "ill make her sit on my lap"

He willingly agreed thought atleast I won't get tired, he made me sit on his lap!

Me as a child couldn't know what's gonna happen to me I dozed off, only woke up to the feeling of being inappropriately being touched by that uncle!

I could sense somethings wrong but I went all numb and thought it's ok for him to hold me like that! I could see my naanu standing a little away from me but couldn't tell him anything not then not later!

I wish I would have spoken about it, I wish that man would've gotten his share of punishment for molesting a 6 year old!

Not once but so many such incidents have happened, I've known from my friends but we never talk about it! Never raise our voices cz we r scared of how the society will eventually not believe us and we don't stand for ourselves!

What's happening with Gauri is something I'm sure we all have faced on some or the other level in our lives!

And that's why m so glad we did this track so that women can come out and speak. If we don't own our truth nobody else will. This is just a small attempt to create a space for all of us to share our stories and raise our voices!

#ishqbaaaz
#metoo."