NEW DELHI: Survivors of sexual violence are planning a 60-day ‘Dignity March’ in December. The march, being organised by the NGO Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan, will start from Bombay on December 20 and cover 19 states and 200 districts before concluding in New Delhi on February 22. The NGO is coordinating with 300 other non-governmental organisations across the country for the march.
Among the major cities to be covered are Pune, Solapur, Bangalore, Vellore, Chennai, Nellur, Vijaywada, Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam, Kolkata, Dhanbad, Ranchi, Bhopal, Udaipur, Ajmer, Jaipur, Dehradun, Shimla, Bhubaneswar and Jammu. While some survivors will march through the entire route, the others will attend day-long events and marches in their respective cities.
In cases of minor victims, family members will accompany them. Women who have been trafficked will also join the march that will emphasise the need of survivor-friendly policies and their effective implementation at the ground level. “In the case of sexual violence, the onus is put on the survivors. They continue to be stigmatised and blamed for the incidents. The march is aimed at increasing awareness and changing mindsets to end the stigmatisation of victims of sexual violence,” said Ashif Shaikh, convener of NGO Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan.
The march also aims to take forward the #MeToo campaign on social media through which many women have come forward and narrated their accounts of being sexually harassed by men at workplace. The march would enable women cutting across socio-economic backgrounds and castes to recount their experiences and fight for justice, said Shaikh.
It aims to bring together survivors, their families, lawyers, police officers and other stakeholders on a common platform at the national level. It will also encourage the survivors to create a forum and hold meetings with state governments and discuss the existing lacunae in laws. “Survivors’ forum in each state will meet the local governments to discuss the implementation of the existing laws and rehabilitation of survivors of sexual violence,” said Shaikh.