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The #AskingForIt initiative is about not just standing by when street harassment of girls happens: Take a stand and inspire more people to stand up!
90% of women reported being harassed or abused in public places. Not a statistic to be proud of. Many of us will remember, especially, being harassed as girls, on our way to school or college.
Research by Breakthrough, a global human rights organization, shows that public places such as bus stops and railway stations are among the places where schoolgirls feel most unsafe.
In most cases, we stay quiet…watching, being afraid, or even think that this is how things have always been.
But it doesn’t have to be this way!
Sexual harassment of girls in public places is seen as ‘normal’. In many cases, people even believe that a girl was ‘asking for it’ by being out in the first place or wearing clothes of a certain kind. This problem can be solved only when we make it everybody’s problem!
#AskingForIt is an initiative by Breakthrough to mobilize communities and get every individual, both online and in the ‘real world’, to speak out and not take sexual harassment as ‘normal’. #AskingForIt is about asking for each one of us to speak out and take responsibility.
In the ‘real world’ as well, the campaign will be mobilising for action at bus stops, which are among the worst places today for girls on their way to school or college.
More girls will speak up and fight back againt harassment on the street when they know they have support and others are not just watching!
Show your support and inspire others also to act against any harassment on the streets by writing a post on Women’s Web. If you are a registered contributor on Women’s Web, simply log in and submit your post. If you don’t have a contributor account at Women’s Web, but would like to participate, use this form to send us a guest post on the topic.
Here are some suggestions on what you can write about:
All May, we will be focusing on the topic and working to inspire eveybody to speak up and act!
Most often, we stay quiet because we believe the problem is too big and we are too small. “After all, what can one person do?” is a common response. Let’s not forget that all change starts with one person, followed by another, and another!
Your post can share experiences, examples, resources or inspiration for others to act as well. Let’s remind ourselves that we are not alone – and we can work together to create safer spaces for our girls!
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As he stood in front of his door, Nishant prayed that his wife would be in a better mood. The baby thing was tearing them apart. When was the last time he had seen his wife smile?
Veena got into the lift. It was a festival day, and the space was crammed with little children dressed in bright yellow clothes, wearing fancy peacock feather crowns, and carrying flutes. Janmashtami gave her the jitters. She kept her face down, refusing to socialize with anyone.
They had moved to this new apartment three months ago. The whole point of shifting had been to get away from the ruthless questioning by ‘well-wishers’.
“You have been married for ten years! Why no child yet?”
I huffed, puffed and panted up the hill, taking many rest breaks along the way. My calf muscles pained, my heart protested, and my breathing became heavy at one stage.
“Let’s turn back,” my husband remarked. We stood at the foot of Shravanbelagola – one of the most revered Jain pilgrimage centres. “We will not climb the hill,” he continued.
My husband and I were vacationing in Karnataka. It was the month of May, and even at the early hour of 8 am in the morning, the sun scorched our backs. After visiting Bangalore and Mysore, we had made a planned stop at this holy site in the Southern part of the state en route to Hosur. Even while planning our vacation, my husband was very excited at the prospect of visiting this place and the 18 m high statue of Lord Gometeshwara, considered one of the world’s tallest free-standing monolithic statues.
What we hadn’t bargained for was there would be 1001 granite steps that needed to be climbed to have a close-up view of this colossal magic three thousand feet above sea level on a hilltop. It would be an understatement to term it as an arduous climb.
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