AAP women’s wing to launch anti-stalking campaign

As a part of its ongoing campaign to make stalking a non-bailable offence, the women’s wing of the Aam Aadmi Party is planning to launch an awareness drive about stalking at select Metro stations across Delhi from Monday.

Richa Pandey Mishra, president of the AAP women’s wing in Delhi, said on Saturday that the organisation was gearing up for a “long fight” against stalking.

She said the women’s wing had launched its campaign for a stringent anti-stalking legislation with a public discussion with MLAs on March 7 where the legislators were sensitised about the widespread problem of stalking.

The Delhi Assembly on March 24 had passed a resolution saying it would introduce an anti-stalking Bill in the next session, after lobbying by the AAP women’s wing.

Since last month, the women’s wing has been carrying out a signature campaign with the goal of 1 lakh signatures in favour of making stalking a non-bailable offence.

“From Monday, we will start the next phase of the campaign. We have a cadre of about 4,000 volunteers. Our volunteers will go to busy Metro stations like Rajiv Chowk, Mandi House, Uttam Nagar and Laxmi Nagar and sensitise the public. They will also collect signatures for the campaign and read out an anti-stalking pledge to boys,” she said.

After the campaign collects 1 lakh signatures, the petition would be sent to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, she said. In addition, the women’s wing was planning to organise a human chain on May 12 and a “mega public consultation” on May 27, she said.