India

Delhi, which rose in outrage against the horrific gangrape of a trainee physiotherapist, will celebrate Valentine’s Day by walking the streets to protest sexual violence against women as part of the global One Billion Rising movement. A reminder of how vulnerable women/girls are came when musician Anoushka Shankar, daughter of legendary sitarist Ravi Shankar, admitted she was sexually abused as a child.

“As a child I suffered sexual and emotional abuse for several years at the hands of a man my parents trusted implicitly,” the 31-year-old said in a video in support of the One Billion Rising movement. “Growing up, like most women I know, I suffered various forms of groping, touching, verbal abuse and other things I didn’t know how to deal with.”

More than 500 Delhiites will get on the streets and sing for end to violence against women and distribute pink ribbons to public transport authorities. The young woman was raped in a moving bus.

“It’s an initiative to show the power and responsibility each one of us in stopping crime against women,” said Kamala Bhasin, the movement’s South Asia coordinator. American playwright Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues) started the One Billion Rising movement to demand end to violence against women.

Hindustan Times
14 February 2013