#ChaltiKaNaamModi van, #WomanKiBaat treasure box, flash mob to welcome PM Modi in UK

The non-profit group ILUK or Indian Ladies in the UK is planning a rather special welcome for Prime Minister Modi, who would be visiting the UK for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CGHOGM) later this month. The group said they would stage a 'colourful' flash mob to welcome the Indian leader. The flash mob would be staged outside 10 Downing Street and dozens of women in sarees would participate in it as a show of support. 

Not only all show, the group is also planning something with an important message. ILUK says it is also planning to get the slogan #BetaPadhaoBetiBachao (educate the sons to save the daughters) trending as a message from the Indian women in the UK that they hope the PM will take back to the country.
The group wants its #BetaPadhaoBetiBachao message to become an extension of the Modi government's widely promoted 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' initiative, which aims to improve the education, welfare and well-being of girls in India.

The ILUK is also planning to collect hand-written messages from thousands of its members across the UK in a "treasure box" named #WomanKiBaat and present it to the PM who is set to arrive in the UK for bilateral meetings on April 18 before the CGHOGM on April 19 and 20. The box will be carried around London in a specially-designed van named #ChaltiKaNaamModi.

"It is imperative for all of India's mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters to stop passing on the stigma of inequality and injustice to our boys and start educating them from when they are toddlers that a better world is possible if they treat their female counterparts with generosity, empathy and equality," said Poonam Joshi, founder and executive director of ILUK.

During his last visit to the UK in 2015, the then newly-formed group had presented PM Modi with a large blanket dubbed the 'Unity in Diversity' blanket made up of 3,500 individual crochet squares handcrafted by its members.

The ILUK claims to be the largest Indian women's group in the country with a membership of around 27,000 first-generation migrant Indian women.

(With PTI inputs)