The diginity march by Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan will reach Goa on December 23 and will host an event at Azad Maidan in association with NGOs and prominent activists to garner solidarity for the cause
#TG LIFE
Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan organized Dignity March to end sexual violence against women and children, a 10,000km national march in 200 districts of 24 states/Union Territories in India. The march kicked-off from Mumbai December 20 and will culminate on February 22 in Delhi.
In India, rape and sexual violence on women and children remains one of the most critical problems that need urgent redressal. According to NCRB, reported cases of crime against women increased 83% from 185,312 in 2007 to 338,954 in 2016. As many as 2.5 million crimes against women have been reported in India over the last decade. Rape accounts for about 12% of all crimes against women. In 2016, 106 rapes were reported every day and the same year saw the lowest conviction rate of 18.9% in the last decade of crime against women. Children especially are often subjected to sexual violence because they’re more vulnerable and susceptible than adults and are easily threatened. In India, a child is sexually abused every 15 minutes. 1,04,976 cases registered under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (PoCSO), during the year 2014-16 with 36,022 cases alone in 2016; out of that 19765 were rape and 12262 of sexual assault cases. Around 24,000 children and women were victims of human trafficking in 2016, a rise of nearly 25 percent from the previous year.
“Dignity March is a call for women and children to share their experiences of sexual abuse without shame, and for other stakeholders to create a healthy, non-judgmental and safe environment to support these voices, to fight on their behalf. It is time to speak up, end victim shaming and shift the blame. Collectively, we must hold the state actors accountable to ensure justice to survivors. To hold society and the state accountable toward punitive action against the perpetrator, through effective implementation of legal guidelines, and ensuring rehabilitation facilities for survivors,” say Ashif Shaikh and Urmila, convenors, Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan.
The organisers informed that during the march they will be conducting community meetings in 200 districts across the country with different stakeholders to trigger conversations around sexual violence and trafficking. Around 24 state-level meetings will be held with different stakeholders to sensitize them on issues, awareness and sensitization programmes, state-level convention of survivors and distribution of resource material targeted at different stakeholders to help deal with issues of violence against women and children.
For the inauguration of the march, about 5000 survivors and their family members joined the march on December 20, at Somaiya Ground, Sion Mumbai. Tisca Chopra, film actress, Sudha Chandran actress and Bharatanatyam dancer, Laxmi Agarwal, survivor and campaigner with Stop Acid Attacks and a TV host, Bhanwari Devi, activist and survivor of gang rape, Vidya Shah, CEO, EdelGive Foundation, Svati Bbhatkal, Satyamev Jayate TV show, PM Nair, IPS (Retd) and former director general of police, NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) Govt of India and Jayna Kothari, Center for Law and policy research also joined in the inauguration event of the Dignity March.
