Men on big bikes: Govt’s ambassadors for women

Chennai: Garbed in windcheaters and sporting dark shades, 15 city techies, most of them in their late 20s, mounted their Royal Enfields and Harleys on Thursday to coast around 3,000km in the state. Their mission: To grab eyeballs with their beasts. Their message: To treat women with dignity. Their taskmasters: The state government.
In a step away from its usual celebration to mark International Women’s day, the social welfare department has joined hands with a city-based bikers’ club, to spread the word on laws that protect women, among young men.

Over the course of the next 24 days, the bikers will travel through 12 districts in the state that see high crime incidence against women and girls. V Amuthvalli, director of social welfare department said, these districts were identified based on prevalence of child marriage, school dropout rates and poor health indicators. Some of the districts include Ariyalur, Perambalur, Dharmapuri, Salem, Trichy and Kancheepuram. She said the department’s field-level officials felt men are often in the dark about laws and welfare programmes for women. “We talk about gender equality, but most of our programmes are for and by women. It’s time we educated our men,” she said. The rally was inaugurated by social welfare minister V Saroja on Thursday.

Kaushik Murthy, founder of Your BHP Motoring club, whose team will be visiting identified government and private colleges, said, the process won’t be mere distribution of pamphlets. The entire purpose of the exercise, he said, is to engage men in women’s initiatives. The team will submit a report to the government and also discuss and invite feedback on four laws that seek to protect the gender– Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act and Dowry Prohibition Act.

“It’s a problem we have been silent witnesses to for far too long. Every woman must be respected, and the change, I feel should start with us men,” said Amjad Khan.