SHILLONG: A woman on wheel from Odisha is on a crisscrossing India on a two-wheeler to raise awareness on crime against women.
Rishika Sahoo, a 35-year-old teacher, associated with the Art of Living has been raising awareness against female foeticide, women empowerment and rising crime against the fairer sex.
In her quest to spread the message, she has reached Meghalaya. Before arriving at Shillong, she went to Jaintia Hills and had a night halt there.
Rishika set off on her scooty on September 14 to spread the message of woman empowerment. “I started at Bhubaneswar’s Kalinga Stadium. I have ridden several thousand kilometres. Apart from the North East, I have travelled to several states across the country,” she said.
Inspired by spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to take up the cause and encourage gender equality in the country, she has been trying to reach out to all sections of people, including the students, on the course of her relentless journey.
She has been meeting college and high school students and women’s self-help groups and talking to them about the ills of gender discrimination.
Touching on the other side of women’s safety, Rishika observed that a sizeable number of underage boys and young adult males are locked up in juvenile homes and prison.
“I urge parents to raise their boys in a way that they don’t commit crimes against women. If you tell your daughter to be home before dark for her safety, why can’t you ask your son to come home before sunset, too? This will prevent him from committing a crime,” the teacher observed.
“People generally don’t listen to you if you try to talk to them about social issues, but they get curious when they see me riding a bike and ask a lot of questions regarding my mission and objectives,” she added.
Co-incidentally, Rishika’s visit to Meghalaya could not have been better timed. Currently, Meghalaya sits high on the graph of crime against women.
Despite its claim to fame of being a matrilineal society, crime against women and the girl child have reached an all time high with the most common form of crime against women in Meghalaya being rape. Rape accounts for 39 per cent of all crimes committed against the fairer sex followed by cases of molestation which accounts for 34 per cent of the crimes.
