Miles to go before she sleeps

SHALINI SAKSENA caught up with Srishti Bakshi as she walked the last 1,000 km of her 3,800 km on-foot journey for women’s safety. A report

It all began when a report was published in the newspapers about a mother-daughter having been gangraped before the father/husband and son/brother on National Highway 91. This was the first time that Srishti Bakshi, a marketing strategist based out of Hong Kong, didn’t have any defence of India.

“My father is a retired Army officer. As a child, patriotism was and is a part and parcel of my life. When I shifted to Hong Kong, I would always have a comeback and defend India when it came to any negative news that found its way. I would have debates with some of the people there who said that they would love to visit India but for the fact that it is not safe for a lone woman to travel in the country. The news of mother-daughter rape got me thinking. I wanted to change the perception of the people coming into India,” Bakshi recounts.

But it was her husband who actually pushed her into taking action instead of just mulling over the situation. That was when Bakshi decided to walk from Kamyakumari to Kashmir — a total distance of 3,800 km in 260 days. The aim — Women Safety and their Empowerment.

Taking this walk required stamina and Bakshi needed to train and chalk out a plan. She turned towards her father for help. “He was the obvious choice. He was in the Army. Walking almost 4,000 km requires proper training but more than that it is the logistics involved. Who better than him to plan it out,” Bakshi says who started on her journey on September, 2017 and was in the Capital, towards the last leg of her walk which will end on April, 2018.

To begin with, Bakshi only managed to walk 15-20 km but later it was 30 km per day which would start at 5 am. At around 12:30 pm she would take a break at a village and hold workshops where she talks about how women can improve their life. “We talk about real-life cases of ladies who have changed their life and we would tell other women, if she can do it, you can too,” Bakshi tells you.

During her walk, she found that the major reason why women in India are not safe is that over a period of time a girl’s confidence is broken down gradually. “If you ask a Class II girl, she would get up very confidently and say a police officer or a Collector is. But when the same question was put across to a Class XI girl, all she would say is ‘I want to study more’. Ask her to elaborate and she wouldn’t have any a comeback. Slowly, due to the home environment, her goal becomes marriage and the only way to improve her life is to marry a man who has a Government job. So her life is confined to home,” Bakshi says, who is also a UN Champion for Change.

As she walked, she has sown behind seeds of thought process since a part of the walk is to also to have a solution — digital literacy of a woman — how a girl sitting at home can learn and earn. For this, she started working with Internet Saathi programme by Tata Trust and Google to take it to the next level.

While walking only Bakshi does though people join her. Her father has been there all through and her husband joins in at all major cities.

She can’t say that her entire journey so far has been all good. “It is in the eyes of the men. One can make out the intent when they approach you. I have not set out to prove that the country is safe, I set out to understand it. Just to say that if there were 98 good ones, two were bad and therefore focus on the good. We are also supported by the State police like the Telangana and UP Police which need a special mention. They both have amazing programmes — SHE team in Telangana and 1090 in UP and how they have been able to tackle crimes of harassment over the phone and on the street, nab the perpetrators, counsel them and then release them,” Bakshi says.

She also tells you that a lone woman travelling, she needs to do a lot of research on how to make herself safe. “The country is beautiful and people are nice. But solo travel in certain pockets like interiors of Haryana and Madhya Pradesh is not recommended,” Bakshi advises who, once the walk is over is going to continue with her work regarding digital literacy of the woman.