Mission ‘Pink Belt’ launched to empower women in Rajasthan 

Keeping in mind the series of crimes against women and children, the Rajasthan women’s commission on Wednesday launched mission ‘Pink Belt’ for training women to be physically and mentally strong and have sound knowledge of the law.

The mission aims at getting girls from college and school to join the “Pink Belt” clubs which will inform women about their legal rights, self-defence techniques and mental toughness, said Suman Sharma, chairperson of the state women’s commission.

The mission was launched in Jaipur and will be taken to six divisional headquarters. It aims at strengthening women physically, mentally and legally so that they can face all challenges, she said.

She said that five girls from each college will be trained by Aparna Rajawat, who is a motivational speaker, under the mission. Those who have been trained will further train others in their college. The programme will run across the state.

Sharma said at present the police department is also giving self-defence training to girls at schools and colleges. “Incidents are happening in and outside houses, and at the workplace — the girls need to be prepared in a way that no one dares to misbehave with them. We will recommend that the government makes self-defence training part of the curriculum,” she said.

“In our society, the mentality is that a five-year-old brother goes to drop his 12-year-old sister, this should change. Instead of parents guarding daughters, they should educate boys to respect women,” said the commission chairperson.

Addressing students, Rajawat said, “We need to change slogans such as save or educate girls but make the boys understand. We should not tolerate when teased but protest and teach them a lesson. We should not be a spectator, victim or witness if a girl is being teased but become a fighter.”

A participant at the workshop, Shilpa Singh said, “Besides self-defence techniques, we were given basic knowledge about good and bad touch, cyber crime and law.”

The workshop was attended by around 500 students from 10 schools and colleges.