Kolkata: This year’s Valentine’s Day marks the 15th anniversary of V-Day, a global activist movement to end violence against women.
This year February 14 will not be observed as Valentine’s Day only but globally it will be recognised more as Violence free day. The movement is aptly named ‘One Billion Rising’, and it has been started by feminist writer, Eve Ensler, who wrote and performed ‘The Vagina Monologues’, 15 years ago.
The figure of one billion has been worked out on the basis of available statistics that one out of three women on this earth will experience violence in her lifetime, which means a staggering one billion women on this planet would be impacted by violence. “Rise and dance” is the vociferous message of One Billion Rising – a global campaign demanding end of violence against women. On February 14, there will be 13, 000 organisations in 192 countries around the world holding noisy, energetic events encouraging “activists, writers, thinkers, celebrities, women and men” to “strike, dance and rise”. In India many cities and groups are part of OBR both from urban and rural areas. Women are not a homogenous group, The majority of the world’s poorest people are women, who are further affected by discrimination if they belong to minority groups. (PTI)
