” Jwala Disha ride” is a step towards encouraging more women to come out of the shadow of social shame/ boundation and claim whats rightfully theirs. At the same time reminding the society around them that ” Women are not objects” , they too need freedom of choice and liberty of expression as their fundamental right.
It is to remind people of the gruesome incidence rape which happened in year 2012, and to sensitize them towards issues.
It was held in 22 cities all over India in year 2018 and Agartala Cycloholics, a cycling club, organised it in Agartala under the aegis of “Jwala – the voice of the women ” , an Indore based NGO , active for the women’s cause.
The cause was brought forward and this year it is organised in 222 cities all over India, Agartala being one among them.
The problems are all around us. sometimes its confusing , whether there is a world and few problems in it or there is a labyrinth of problems and world somehow trying to manage its way out . Rape is one among such problems , which has been shaking the world since long but world is not able to shake it , not able to uproot it and throw it so far that the coming generation wont even hear about it.
The people are furious , but not so often their anger synergies and they stand as a movement . It happened once in year 2012 , when a medical student was gang raped in a moving bus and thrown out naked in chilling cold. It happened again when a veterinary doctor was gang raped and burned to death. According to the NCRB data 2017 , rape is the fastest growing crime against women in India and about three women had been raped every hour.
When people came to road to demand for the strict punishment against such crimes, parliament passed the law to soothen the masses . it was assumed that the things will improve . But contrary to that rape cases rose from 24923 in year 2012 to 38997 in year 2016.
Crime against women is a social issue , it has many more dimensions than just lack “stricter Punishments”. Recently a police officers rightly said , “till we keep garlanding those who are perpetrator the situation wont improve”.
I would rather leave it to the sociologists to dwell upon it and come out with a better and robust analysis and solution , but I strongly feel that one dimension of the problem is poor women socio-economic participation. Their financial independence will not only give their voice a weight , but also their social participation will act for the course correction.
We from Agartala Cycloholics, as a civil society are determined to take this cause forward and bring more women participation to cycling in Agartala.
