Walking from Kanyakumari to Kashmir for women’s safety
NEW DELHI: Srishti Bakshi has walked around 2,800km across nine states, interacting with people in villages to raise awareness about women safety and empowerment. The 31-year-old said she will walk another 1,000km to complete her journey from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.
On Sunday evening, Bakshi came to the India Gate lawns as part of the Delhi leg in her journey to raise awareness about her campaign on ‘Women’s Safety and their Empowerment through Digital and Financial Literacy’.
She started walking from Greater Noida, UP, at 10pm towards Delhi’s Geeta Colony. From Delhi, she will walk across Punjab and Haryana, before entering Jammu and Kashmir.
Two years ago Bakshi, who lives in Hong Kong, decided to walk across the country to spread awareness on women empowerment and safety. A graduate from Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, Bakshi said she started her campaign after reading a news report about gangrape of woman and her daughter in UP’S Bulandshahar.
“I used to have arguments with friends about how India was beautiful and had a great culture but it was not safe for women... That’s why I decided to do something about it,” she said.
Last year in September, Bakshi started her 260-day walk to cover 3,800 kilometres from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. In 171 days since then, she has covered 62 villages in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharasthra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi.
Bakshi has founded an organisation to engage with people to bring changes in their attitude towards women.
“We conduct activity based workshops in coordination with aganwadi and district collectors’ office on various issues... ” Bakshi said.