31.12.12

Step by Step Plan For Jan 1 #SafeCityPledge


(image from a protest in Delhi #DelhiGangRape)









#SafeCityPledge

City + Location


Bangalore: Cubbon Park MG Road ( near Victoria statue)
contact Action Hero Swar Thounaojam 9632506195 . Dev Sukumar. Apurva Mathad- 9845209600

Delhi: Central Park. CP
contact Action Hero Anubhav Pradhan 9999105003  Prasheila

Jaipur  : Gaurav Towers, Malviya Nagar
Vivek Kakkar and Pravah

Lucknow : GPO Hazratganj 
Jyotsna Habibullah 9005575999 / Siddarth Mukund Srivastava

Kolkata: Maidan (near fountain)
contact Priyadarshini Dey . Saptarshi . Dana. Insiya .

Shantiniketan: Bolpur High School, Sri Niketan road

contact Arpeeta Ghosh

Mumbai: Carter Road

Urvashi. Annie. Peter

Goa: Miramar Beach. Near Coffee Day
Shivangini Tandon. Margaret Mascarenhas, Shilo Shiv Suleman

Chandigarh: Sukhna Lane
Hollaback Chandigarh Action Hero Rubina Singh

Chennai: Elliot Beach

Pune : Law College Road

contact Action Hero Devika 9850884349 with Open Space Pune

Hyderabad:  GVK One, Road #1, Banjara Hills. (Near the Hard Rock Cafe Entry gate)
contact Action Hero Sharada @suitcaseindian. 



The Pledge Bank will be updated here in the next few hours.Pledge is a combination of pledges you've sent in and some facilitated by Action Heroes in-house Annie Zaidi , Pallavi Sen.

These pledges can be written on the placard that you bring along to the #SafeCityPledge in your city

You can carry your own pledges of course- that's the point. The pledge bank shared on the blog is to gently nudge us in the direction. You can write your own pledge on an A4 size paper/ a chart paper. it's upto you. You can even print it out. Please make the pledges in both english and the language spoken in your city 
( hindi. kannada. bangla. marathi. gujarati - )

Report to duty at the location as specified at sharp 4 30 pm.
Come alone. Bring a friend/ your organisation/ collective/ family/ everyone around you.
Doesn't matter if we are 5 or 500.  Make the pledge even if it's just you.

4 30 - 5: 00 pm  Stand with your pledge. Face the street. The passersby.
5:00 - 5 : 30 pm - Walk slowly as a group with your pledge.
5: 30 - 6 : 00 pm - one by one Read your pledge aloud.


Guideline :

1. Come painted. Dented. Celebrated 
2. Bring your placard. There will be extra placards but it would be great to have passersby involved and carrying the placard too
3. When you hold your SafeCityPledge on the placard- make eye contact with passersby. stand tall. arched back. ( Action Hero Manifesto)
Any other faq? Please email in blurtblanknoise at gmail


Start the new year with a promise to make your city safe.
Imagine your city. Dream It. Pledge it

30.12.12

Jan 1 . Pledge #SafeCityPledge





Actor and Action Hero Ritesh Deshmukh takes



Dear friends and Action Heroes,

We are all feeling outraged and heartbroken. But the recent Delhi gang-rape is not an isolated incident. We are all aware of how tenuous this notion of 'safety' is and how dangerous it is for citizens to shift responsibility entirely onto the police or government. We risk being manacled, socially, but will still not feel safe because violence lies in the minds of our assailants, not just in our neighbourhoods.

Molestation happens in mobs, in crowded places. It also happens in dark, deserted alleys. It happens in villages, on hills, in buses, trains, cinemas, godowns. We know (and surveys have shown) that women feel safer in spaces where there are a lot of other women, well-lit spaces, where they can take it for granted that the police will do their jobs.

There is a deeply entrenched prejudice against women's social freedom. Citizens often believe that women should NOT be in a wide range of public spaces - dressed, speaking or laughing a certain way. And for this mindset, citizens have to take responsibility. We alone - we together - can affect change.

Change will be seen when the rape and molestation stops. But it will begin when we change the way we live, play, love, talk. When girls play cricket and football in public maidaans. When women take late night strolls. When we begin to challenge sexual intimidation/abuse instead of justifying it.

We are asking you to examine your role. What are the small and big ways in which you can help make a city safe? Dream it. Pledge it. How would you like bureaucrats or ministers in your city/state to make your city safe? Ask them to pledge it. Carry it on a placard.

Join us on January 1, 2013. We will be gathering between 4:30 and 6 pm. Join us (or help organise a similar Pledge in your town). Details below:

Bangalore: Cubbon Park MG Road

Delhi: Central Park. CP

Gurgaon:

Kolkata: Kolkata Maidan near fountain

Shantiniketan: Bolpur High School, Sri Niketan road

Mumbai: Carter Road

Goa: Miramar Beach. Near Coffee Day

Chandigarh: Sukhna Lane

Chennai: Elliot Beach

Pune :

Hyderabad:  GVK One, Road #1, Banjara Hills. (Near the Hard Rock Cafe Entry gate). 


Below are some examples of the pledges others have taken. Please. Take a pledge.

"I pledge to keep taking the regular bus and insisting on more fleets that are not as expensive as the ac volvos"

"I pledge to get proper street lights near bannerghatta road"

"I pledge to do what I have to do, when I have to, with whom I have to. I pledge to turn my anger into constructive action."

"I pledge to not listen when someone asks me to 'face reality'. I'll slap it."

"I pledge to counsel parents. Starting with mine."

"I pledge not to blame a rape survivor. No matter who/where/what she is."

"I pledge to never blame myself. For whatever I may have faced, no matter how "painted", "dented" or "sundari" I was."

"I pledge to refuse to fill up any kind of application(other) form that asks you for your father/husband's name."

Show up. Spread the word. Make your own #SafeCityPledge. Tweet it. On Jan 1, make this your Facebook status message.



Text prepared by Action Hero Annie Zaidi

29.12.12

I PLEDGE





Humaara Asmaan
Humaari Dhoop
Humaari Raat


Claiming our half.


The sky
The sun
The night



28.12.12

Bakht Arif- Zinda Lash




reblogged:

Bakht Arif, from Pakistan, sings Zinda Lash for Patronizing Indian Politicians (No, Don’t Listen to Honey Singh) via  Kafila


Don’t be a zombie. Never be a Zinda Lash.
No. Don’t Listen to Honey Singh talking about what he wants to do to the bodies of young women.
No. Don’t listen to Sushma Swaraj of the BJP talking about what she thinks is the zinda lash when she talks about the body of a young woman.
No. Don’t listen to the son of a president Abhijit Mukherjee  of the Congress talking about denting and painting the body of a young woman.
No. Don’t listen to Anisur Rahman of the CPI(M) talking about ‘hala-fala’ girls and setting a rate to the body of Mamata Bannerjee and any young woman.
No. Don’t listen to Mamata Bannerjee  of the TMC, chief minister of West Bengal talking about the motives that determine the movement of the body of a young woman.
No. Don’t listen to Botsa Satyanarayana of the Congress talking about when the body of a young woman should be moving about and when it should be still.
No. Don’t listen to Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India,  asking ‘theek hai’ after talking about a young woman.
No. Don’t listen to Madam Chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s silence about a young woman.
No. Don’t listen to the Delhi Police Chief’s lies about young women and men.
No. Don’t listen to General V.K. Singh, a former army chief, who talks about young women in Delhi and was silent about young women in Kashmir and Manipur when his soldiers went a raping.
No. Don’t listen to Baba Ramedev when he talks about how to make young women fairer and comelier and homelier.
No. Don’t listen to the news anchors of Lutyens Delhi who can’t look beyond the young women of the capital.
Listen to Haze Kay, from Kashmir, this side of the Line of Control. And now. Listen to Bakht Arif, from Pakistan, from that side of the international border. She sings for all the Zinda Lash, here, there and everywhere.
Thanks to the Cranberries, Bakht Arif and the Internet.
Never be a zombie. Never be Zinda Lash.

PAINTED DENTED AND PLEDGING

Painted. Dented. Pledging. 
In Red Lipstick 
Jan 1 your city. 
4: 30pm 
confirm here

#DelhiGangRape #SafeCityPledge #INeverAskForIt



1. Examine your role in making your city safe- pledge it.
What is the little or big way in which you pledge to make your city safe ? Carry it on a placard.

2. It's about time our ministers/ politicians really started thinking about safe cities as an urgent priority. What change would you like the ministers in your city / state to pledge to make your city safe? mention name + city + pledge
carry it on a placard.

26.12.12

Nilanjana Roy : TALKING RAPE



cross posted from TALKING RAPE BY NILANJANA ROY 
This goes beyond semantics. The rape victim, in the minds of many Indian families and some of the media, is expected to suffer a kind of death along with her rape. It is not the violence that people are thinking about, when they say “her life is over”, of a rape victim; it’s the fact that she was stripped, exposed to strangers, and in their terms, dishonoured by the sexual assault. There is also a commercial devaluation: in families that see women as property, this woman, the rape victim, has suddenly been reduced to a person of no value on the marriage market.
This is very different from the reality of the rape survivor. In the best of all cases, the rape survivor is the woman who knows (or intuits) how common this kind of violent sexual assault is, and who makes the decision to move beyond shame, guilt, loss and everything else the world around her demands that she should now feel. The rape survivor reclaims her body, gives it the care and attention it needs, acknowledges her injuries but is not defined by them, acknowledges her rape but does not let her life be defined by an act she did not want and would have rejected if she had been allowed the choice. The rape survivor reclaims the right to be happy again, to heal, to have crazy, passionate sex again, to be interested in all that interested her before the rape, to develop new interests and passions, the right to feel whole again, the right to live fully and freely again.
The rape survivor is not necessarily just the brave woman who acknowledges her rape, tries to bring her rapists to justice, gets what help she needs and moves on with her life. The rape survivor is also the domestic worker who can’t grieve for herself and her injuries because she has to get into work the next day, the sex worker who can’t report her rape at the police station because she’ll run the risk of being raped by more policemen, the Dalit woman in Haryana who has no privacy after being violently raped because everyone in her village knows who did this to her, and how. Many rape survivors don’t have a choice in their bravery; the circumstances of their lives force upon them the basic courage it takes to get up the day after you’ve been raped and make rotis, go to office, go to the construction site where you have a hard-won job, look after the children, clean someone else’s house.
Given how commonplace sexual violence against women is, and given that we don’t expect the figures to drop drastically soon, it makes much more sense to acknowledge a basic truth—many women and some men will experience sexual violence in their lives. Instead of pretending that this is rare, or only talking about the worst instances, or talking only about how to prevent violence, important as that is, we need to talk about how to live your life well, even if you have experienced assault and violence.
We need to look at the many, many women and men who have moved on from the violence they were subjected to, and reshaped their lives; and we need to stop telling survivors that they’re on their own in this process of reconstruction. If so many women are going to experience or witness sexual violence in their lives, we also need to find ways to talk about what this does to us—we need to be able to speak openly, without fear of being judged, about our own experiences.
(I’ve said this before, but there is no acknowledgement or understanding of male rape; the ritualised sexual assault of men during college ragging rituals, for example, is normalized, seen as commonplace, the trauma rarely discussed. The male survivor of sexual violence in India is shamed and silenced in a different, but equally effective way.)


Men, not brutes:
One of the points I tried to make in a recent piece, ‘Executing The Neighbour’, was that rapists and the men behind sexual violence are not beasts, brutes or monsters. You will come across the occasional psychopath, the truly twisted horrorshow man who has a bloody chamber in his house filled with the corpses of his victims. But what we collectively find hard to accept is the banality of brutality, the unremarkable every-day quality of violence—perhaps because we are so silent about the violence that seems to run through the veins of many Indian families.
Most rapists know the women they have chosen to rape. What the NCRB statistics say, with stunning clarity, is that the average rapist is someone who is considered family, or a friend, or a neighbour, or a close acquaintance. Rape by complete strangers accounts for less than 9 per cent of all reported cases. The monster, the beast, the brute in the remaining 90 per cent of reported cases of rape across India: he’s familiar, one of us.
This is frightening to accept, just as it is frightening for people to start acknowledging that even violent rapes—the ones with the iron rods, the knifes of nightmare, the razor blades, the sharpened sticks shoved into women’s bodies—are often perpetrated by very ordinary men. The more we call rapists monsters and brutes, the less we acknowledge where rape comes from.
Equally troubling, we should not set up a hierarchy of violence and rape, where the media, and all of us, start to count bruises, start to discuss rapes in terms of competitive damage. That, in turn, diminishes the many, many rape survivors who were terrorized by the threat of force or violence, but who do not have injuries or scars to show. It diminishes all those survivors of sexual violence who never consented to what was done to them, never agreed that their bodies could be used that way, but were left without visible marks of assault.
In so many accounts of rape in India, especially, the man or men who rape have the full sanction of the community behind them. The gang rapes of women in times of communal riots; the almost ritualized rapes of Dalit women and women from lower castes because their men, or they, need to be taught a lesson; the custodial rapes, the rapes of women by men in uniform as a way of establishing dominance over the clan, the village, the community. All of these acts of violence are carried out with the approval and the collective silence of the wider community, just as child abuse (according to a 2007 survey, 53 % of Indian children of both genders have experienced child abuse) is carried out with the help of the collective silence of the family.
Most rapists are ordinary men. Many, like the politicians who have chargesheets against them, are men in positions of power and respect; or like the men who handed a woman around to be raped again and again in the Suryanelli case in Kerala, are “family men”. Perfectly ordinary. Perfectly respectable. Perfectly protected, because we don’t want to open up that can of worms; that comes too close to home.

Also: this violence has a cost. We’re not studying male violence enough, but how healthy do you think men can be if they inherit their fathers’ anger and pass it on to their sons? Perhaps this is why so many young men, in particular, are standing up and saying, Enough. Perhaps we need to hear from more men, young and old, about why they reject the rape culture around them, and why they have walked away from violence in their own lives, choosing other, better ways to live and love.

Some years ago, Sampath Pal, the founder of the Gulabi Gang, told me about how she had found the strength to start this movement of women who wore pink saris and beat up the men responsible for domestic violence. (They do broader work on a range of women’s rights issues now.) Her own passion was matched by her partner’s belief that she was right; he was ostracised by his village, and chose to support Sampath Pal rather than go back to his community.


I often think of men like him, or like Bhanwari Devi’s husband, who went with her to the police station after she was gangraped in 1992. He stood with his wife all through, rather than with the village that had first ostracised her for speaking up against child marriage, and then punished her with that chilling gangrape, the one committed with the blessings and knowledge of the community.
A few days before this December’s protests from young, urban Delhi at India Gate, the Times of India carried a small item. The Meham khap, one of the largest and most powerful of the Haryana village panchayat councils, announced that it would revert to the old methods of punishing boys and men accused of rape and sexual assault. It asked that families boycott the accused, and their families.
Perhaps this will work, perhaps not. It could, however, challenge the idea that the rape survivor is the one who bears the shame of the rape. Nor is the Meham khap’s decision a sudden flash-in-the-pan—over the last few years, Meham’s citizens appear to have expressed a collective anger over rising instances of sexual assault against women. The khaps have been in the news for more controversial pronouncements—bans on mobile phones for women, on various grounds, restrictions on meetings between young men and women—but the Meham khap’s decision signals some change.
Religion and tradition:
 If the family is one major site of change, religion and tradition form the other front. Religions can empower women—take Sikhism, the first major world religion to proclaim that women were equal to men, with souls of equal weight—but religious practice is another matter. If we’re serious about “stopping rape”—making sexual violence against women unacceptable, then one way to start might be to reject traditions and practices that denigrate women.
If your religion tells you that women must fast for men, but men don’t have to fast for women; that women are not welcome as leaders of the faith, or in the shrines and sanctums of faith; that women count for less than men, do not accept this blindly as a matter of duty. Every major world religion has gone through cycles of reform, and the lines of control have often shifted. Embrace that part of your faith which tells you to celebrate the strength of women and their equality with men; do not accept any prescription from any faith that tells you that a woman’s basic human rights are less important than religious practice.
The same applies to tradition, which has been used to justify everything from dowry to honour killings. The simple test for anything that is said to be the custom of the country: does it humiliate women? Does it threaten their wellbeing or their safety or their lives? If so, don’t support it.
Protesting injustice, expressing anger: these are important. But if Honey Singh’s vile pro-rape lyrics and Bollywood’s continued packaging of women’s bodies aren’t challenged as well, there’s little point to holding up placards asking for change and justice. Yes, the government and the state must change; but it can’t be only the government, only the state.
If you really want a system to change, start by changing the way women are treated every day, in their homes, in their workplaces, by their families. That kind of revolution, in our daily lives and behaviours, is much harder to bring about than passing a law, or setting up fast-track courts. It’s also more lasting.

I WITNESS (23/12/2012) - The good people of DELHI

Crossposted at Kafila: [ The Delhi Police has begun systematically lying about what has been happening in the past few days. We have seen spin doctoring around the unfortunate death of Constable Subhash Tomar. There has been efforts to plant generalized and unsubstantiated rumours about the presence of 'terrorists' amongst the crowds at India Gate. We have even seen the Chief Minister of Delhi, Shiela Dikshit and a sub divisional magistrate complain about the Delhi Police trying to interfere and influence that process of the recording of testimonies. Here is an important account by an eyewitness, Sangeeta Das, about the way the police behaved on the evening of the 23rd of December. Please note the kind of language that she says policemen were using. Can we trust the city to be safe in their hands.] 


via Sangeeta Das:

I am appalled at the lop-sided relay of events and incomplete images being telecast by some of the NEWS channels on TV, regarding the incident that happened at India Gate yesterday (23/12/2012) at around 5:30 PM.

I was there. We were all on the other side of India Gate towards the Dhyan Chand Stadium.

I think I need to paint the correct picture for the nation. Except for CNN IBN and NEWS X, most other channels are not showing the peaceful gathering. Thus it gives out the wrong message to the nation, to the politicians, to other women that there was violence.

Please pass on this note to as many people as you can and post it at as many places.

THERE WAS NO VIOLENCE NO PROVOCATION…THE POLICE ATTACKED WITHOUT ANY WARNING. I have been through section 144 earlier. At least there should have been one warning issued to us to get up and leave, peacefully, before they started hitting us.

Ms.Naina Kapur, of VISHKHA GUIDELINES fame, was there with me. Ms.Smita Bharti of SAAKSHI, an NGO working on SEXUAL HARASSMENT on women, was there. Ms.Nafisa Ali was standing behind us, Mr.Arvind Kejriwal was sitting just two rows in front of me, Mr.Arvind Gaur of ASMITA THEATER GROUP was there asking all the people to sit down and listen to the talks.

There were about 200-250 girls and equal or more number of men of all ages. There were young girls, some children, families and some elderly people along with hoards of photographers, journalists and reporters.

WE WERE ALL SITTING ON THE ROAD PEACEFULLY and listening to the painful account, of the mother of ‘KIRAN NEGI’, a 3 yr old who has been brutally raped and disfigured and killed, by her attackers. Even the sloganeering had stopped.

Many young and old men of Delhi were standing around us in a 3-4 layer human chain to protect us from any hooligans or nasty elements. It was like a CHAKRAVYUH.

Members of the ASMITA THEATER GROUP, including Mr.Gaur, were constantly walking around the circle. Young boys and girls of his team were repeatedly requesting and talking to people to not resort to violence, not to panic or run or throw stones, not to damage public property, AND not to hurt or abuse the female protestors.

There were many volunteers distributing biscuits and water to every protestor.

We were talking to the ‘AAM JANATA’ of Delhi on how to tackle the violence on women and children starting from ourselves, our homes and communities.

WE WERE SIMPLY TALKING.

I had just finished my packet of biscuit when the police, hundreds of them from DELHI POLICE and RAF, charged at us from behind, WITHOUT ANY WARNING.

They first attacked the men from behind, breaking their CHAKRAVYUH. I stood up to see what the commotion was about, and immediately fell as most girls didn’t get enough time to stand up. I hugged Smitaji as we fell on each other and there was a stampede over us.

Some of the men from the circle ran for their lives, but most of them ran towards us and hugged us and fell on us and took the initial blows of the LATHI CHARGE.

I couldn’t see anything; I just heard the two cracks of a SPLIT BAMBOO STICK on my back, butt and thighs. Then I heard the police screaming, HARAMZADIYON, RANDIYON, and then I saw a boot kicking my knees and shin.

They hit Smitaji on her lower-back and spine. The boys of ASMITA, and some more men pulled us all up and all of them formed protection girdles around the girls to push us out of the range of the water cannons and charging men in KHAKI AND BLUE.

Visibility was poor due to fog and tear gas; many girls were hit; even when we were running away and saying, “Ham jaa rahen hain, hame mat mariye”,…. they were hitting the boys rampantly, constantly spitting abuses on the girls. Many women reporters were also hit and chased, their vans attacked, equipments broken. Some girls still managed to pull a few lathis and gave it back to the men. I don’t know what happened to the children in the group and how the aunties in saris managed to run. I just hope they are all well.

There was not a single ambulance in sight; the entire C- Hexagon of India Gate was empty, barring the police. We walked for almost 45 min, as there was no way out from the outer circle. Finally we managed to duck behind press vans and escaped via Shahjahan Road.

Do I look like a hooligan? Was I armed? Was I provoking the police or creating a nuisance? Was I resorting to violence, by sitting there and listening to, or sharing our personal grievances of Sexual harassment and assault? You judge for yourself.


Agreed, that in such gatherings, some nasty elements do infiltrate and create a raucous, but the police didn’t seem to have the basic sensibility to differentiate between hooligans and some young girls, children, and elderly people.

If the Delhi Police and RAF lack the basic cognizance to recognize the good from bad, what protection can we expect from them? Instead I thank the men of Delhi, the boys of Delhi, who helped all the girls to escape from the wrath of THE POLICE. 

I request the people who were present there, to paint the correct picture, so that Mr.Manmohan Singh, Mr.Shinde and others would get the correct picture of what happened on the ground.

I request the PM and the Home Minister to believe that “I, the woman of India,” am not violent or the ‘Shame of the nation’... that we have to be ashamed that the world is watching. I was not offensive. But I will definitely stand up again to defend myself, my mother, my daughter and my kind. Let the world watch.

25.12.12

Safe City Pledge


PUBLIC NOTICE : JUSTICE VERMA COMMITTEE




Flavia Agnes - Rape and Death
Nilanjana Roy Executing the Neighbour

Mrityu Dand Sahi Nahi


photo by Prakash K Ray 
from citizen led protest at India Gate Delhi #DelhiGangRape
statement by Anonymous Action Hero Citizen
‎Death penalty is wrong
To hang isn't the solution
Reject patriarchy- topple it over
This is the moment

What's your pledge
In little big small / long term everyday ways you make your city safe.
Think.  Pledge. Commit. #SafeCityPledge #DelhiGangRape.

24.12.12

Pledge : Making Cities Safe


Without 

Panic.  Alert.  Hyper Security.

Yet with URGENCY.

Dream a Safe City. 

Pledge it. 

23.12.12

Via ZigZackly



If you haven't been discomfited by a government form that demands a father's or husband's name, you're part of the problem.

If you think that a woman must change her name, first or second or both, when she marries, you're part of the problem.

If you are not ashamed of laws that treat women as if they were possessions of a man, or less than men in any way, you're part of the problem.

If you work for, or patronise, a company that insists a woman has no identity of her own, that she ceases to become part of her birth family once she is married, you're part of the problem.

If you think that ladies compartments in trains and ladies seats in busses are a solution, you're part of the problem.

If you think security cameras and banning sun-film on vehicles are a solution, you're part of the problem.

If your son can stay out late but not your daughter, if your daughter must be 'dropped home' but not your son, I know I'm being hard on you, and I would do the same in our cities, but you're part of the problem, as I am.

If you are not distressed by playgrounds where little boys run wild but where you don't see any little girls, by boys coming out to play cricket on the street during a bandh, but not girls, maybe you're not observant enough, or maybe you're part of the problem.

If you run an ad campaign that has hunky male film stars asking the world to 'be a man' and join him in protecting women, you're part of the problem.

If you think that getting men to think of all women as their mothers and sisters and daughters is a solution, perhaps you're not a problem, but I'm sorry, I think you're very wrong. It should be enough to think of them as fellow human beings, with rights of their own as valid and as important as yours.

more here

21.12.12

Dec 26 Take the Pledge to your city streets.  Get in touch be part of the organizing team in your city. 

Y E S ! LOVE Kavita Krishnan.






"Women have every right to be adventurous. We will be adventurous. We will be reckless. We will be rash. We will do nothing to produce safety for ourselves. Don't you dare tell us what to wear. Don't tell us what time of the day or night we may be out or how many escorts we need." --Kavita Krishnan, AIPWA secretary, at protest outside Sheila Dixit's residence.

#DelhiGangRape #SafeCityPledge

20.12.12

I PLEDGE

#SafeCityPledge

In the wake of the #DelhiGangRape what do YOU as citizen pledge to make your city safe? 
Dont just be angry. make a pledge. a promise to how you can make change. you can. #SafeCityPledge #DelhiGangRape
1. Build it. Add your pledge to the comments below
2. Tweet pledge with #DelhiGangRape #SafeCityPledge
3. Change your status update " I pledge to _ _ #SafeCityPledge


Pledge Karo. Do it. What will you pledge to make ur city safe 

I PLEDGE to NOT to tell my daughter/ mum/ sister/ girls "Be Safe" . Instead- go out. Be Visible. Be an Action Hero #SafeCityPledge

I PLEDGE to Walk Alone. Unlearn Fear.  #DelhiGangRape

I PLEDGE to be visible in my city. Unlearn Fear.  #DelhiGangRape

I PLEDGE to not tell my daughter/ wife/ sister/ girls to "be safe" #DelhiGangRape

I PLEDGE to not be indifferent to 'eve-teasing'. Sexual Violence. To never be 'okay with it'  #DelhiGangRape

I Pledge to work directly with men and mascunilities.  #DelhiGangRape

Want to pledge that I'll file an FIR for sexual violence but need the police  and state to pledge fast track + immediacy 

I pledge to remind ourselves - rape + streetharassment concerns male behaviour. It's NOT 'just a woman's issue' #DelhiGangRape #SafeCityPledge

Action Heroes pledge on FB and twitter  

@Divya Parthasarathy I Pledge to get out the Moralistic Stands against rape victims #SafeCityPledge

@margaret Mascarenhas I pledge to keep teaching art and poetry in a jail where several of my all-male students are incarcerated for rape. #SafeCityPledge

will keep on reclaiming my rightful public space & instigate others to do the same. Let the fire spread. :) 

@Vandana Mohanraj pledge that there will be day when a woman does not have to fear rape when she goes through normal day to day activities in her life like,getting into an auto,taking a bus at night and having cars pass by her on a lonely road.

@BDUTT you have my pledge #SafeCityPledge

I am not sure if a pledge on face book works but I will continue to speak up and do whatever is needed fearlessly to address sexual harassment of women in public or private places


Whitney Russell to say rape/assault/battery/harassment when that's what I mean and not misbehaving/trying his luck/teasing etc when that is not accurate
I Pledge to reach out to my neighbours and people in the locality. Making them less unknown would make me feel safe. #SafeCityPledge


 I pledge to battle that fear, if not unlearn it altogether!


Abhishek Bahadur I pledge that I will stand up to every man who dares to misbehave with a woman. I pledge to do everything I can even in a situation where I may be outnumbered by contacting authorities etc. I pledge to correct people who use words like slut and bitch in a very casual way. I pledge to look out for women beyond my sister, mother, friend, girl friend etc. Much strength to the ladies. Us sane Delhi really look up to you and appreciate your courage and resolve.


Sue Henderson I pledge to continue to speak out against men who try to harass me, but also to be more aware of what's going on around me, to look out for other women or children who may be in difficulties and need my support.

अमृता आनंद I pledge to argue with every known men who thinks street harassment is a casual joke. will keep on reclaiming my rightful public space & instigate others to do the same. Let the fire spread.

Holly Kearl I LOVE this. I'm sick of people telling women not to go places b/c we might be assaulted by men. It's our right to be everywhere and anywhere! 
I pledge to go for a run after dark this week even though I've always been told not to do that.


Piyush Modak I pledge to replace the term "eve-teasing" with sexual assault #SafeCityPledge

Javed Rahat I pledge i will take up all cases of rape victims  survivors free of cost and never ask to defend any accused in any court of india i myself created such example when I declined to defend an accused who was accused of rape a 5 year girl

Uttam Arora I pledge to be seen #SafeCityPledge

Aarthi Ajit I pledge to be seen for who I am.


Madhurya Iyer I pledge to believe in my power. as a woman and all the things it encompasses and fight to not have that power taken away from me or any other woman.

Avni Chinoy I pledge to not remain silent out of fear when provoked.

Beulah Kolhatkar I pledge to continue to teach Health and Social Justice to school and college students for the rest of my life. I believe that the Indian Educational systems/curricula have done a stunningly lousy job in teaching young people "Gender Equality", Anatomy, the Psycho social aspects of HIV/AIDS, about marriage or how to bring up their own children someday. The lack of caring and respect in the home space for girls/women is well learnt by the boys/men and reinforced by their mothers and fathers!! I have always walked alone and I have taught my daughter and son to do the same I have always been deeply grateful to my parents for helping me grow a spine and walk tall.

Simi Sherin I pledge to remain alert and careful, still raise vows against the incidences against women even if the hype dies down #SafeCityPledge # DelhiGangRape

Ipso Facto Sengupta I pledge to argue with/oppose whoever passes sexist remarks.


Shweta Taneja I pledge to fight for my space - to walk freely under the sun and the stars and not be afraid. #SafeCityPledge

And for once, there was no pain
Engulfing her in the darkness
They won, and they rejoiced
Her agony slowly withered away
The angry voices grew more distant
Taking refuge from the horrors of the past
Succumbing to death, she lived
They do not feel shame, we do
We Shout, We Cry, We Yell
They ignited the fire within
We feel helpless, we complain
But we won’t let them live to see another day
They will cease to exist
And for once, there will be no pain

(Fatima Shahzad)
Udita Sharma I pledge to raise my voice now and always for any woman who has been sexually assaulted.
Shivangini Tandon I Pledge to laugh, sing, dance, talk loudly and say hello to strangers whenever I am out with my girlfriends. #SafeCityPledge
Shoot At Sight I pledge to NOT tell the women I know to be careful, cover up, avoid certain areas, make eye contact ALWAYS. Scream out loud and reclaim public spaces. Be an Action Hero #SafeCityPledge

Di Bundy I pledge to tell my grand daughters the truth, that its a man's world but you just get out there and rock it my babies!! BE SAFE BE SEEN!!!
Trishima Mitra-Kahn I pledge to acknowledge my real and palpable fear but to not let that scare me. #SafeCityPledge

Shilo Shiv Suleman I pledge to NEVER give my daughter a malnourished oversexed barbie doll, and NEVER give my son a gun to play with. #Safecitypledge


Shilo Shiv Suleman I pledge to not just focus on my anger, but also small solutions within my community, open discussions about sexuality and gender roles, discuss sexuality, violence and cultural conditioning with friends and family.

Shilo Shiv Suleman I pledge to not play out old stereotypes of the Indian Woman having to be Coy and "too shy to know what they want". When I say YES, it means yes. When I say NO. It means NO.
Sabika Muzaffar I pledge to counsel parents. Starting with mine. How is telling your daughters to stay at home after dark, in the 'light' of the recent rape case, preventive or corrective measure? If at all, parents should be putting curfews on their sons. What exactly will come out of jailing the victim, I never seem to understand, i.e., apart from re-enforcing the stereotype that rape can be curbed if women do not step out on the roads after dark. I don't think I have ever felt threatened in the presence of a lot of women or at the sight of a group of women approaching me. For that matter, I have always gotten permission to be out at night more readily if I am hanging out with a bunch of my girlfriends. I assume my presence on the roads of Delhi is only going to comfort other women. Encourage them to feel safe, the same way I feel encouraged by the presence of other women. This is a plea to all women to start with protesting against your parents. To come out of the dark by coming out and facing the dark. I think we should be holding all-night protests and instead of holding them at touristy places such as India Gate and Jantar Mantar, we should be gathered in huge numbers at secluded places, places where there are no streetlights, so that we draw attention to the lack of proper amenities rather than to us and our catchy slogans/ catchphrases.

Sabika Muzaffar I pledge to insist on being frisked outside of those useless cubicles at metro stations, malls, etc. meant only for frisking women. How are those any different from the veil or the burqa? I refuse to hide my body behind anything that has specifically been designed to 'protect' me from the male gaze. Teach the male to lower his gaze instead, because I refuse to be protected. What I need is to be empowered, in a manner that I wouldn't ever need protection. And till the time I do not believe that the female body, like the male body is understood to be, is just a body; till the time I do not refuse the special status/ attention my body is given just because I happen to be a female, I myself am making no significant effort to protest being seen as an object of desire. So, in the name of equality, I refuse to be frisked in separate enclosures meant only for women.
Sowmiya Kalyanaraman I pledge that I will go out there with the freedom and space that is already mine and not for anyone else to grant to me. I pledge to keep myself prepared with some self defense techniques.
Snehal Biswas I pledge I will try to be in my senses, since it has been claimed that we men are far too easy provoked by a woman's clothing. That we are very vulnerable to female pheromones. That in a rush of testosterone, we forget the difference between good and evil. That we can turn from man to demon in a matter of minutes. All it takes is a female presence. I pray to the Almighty to give me the strength to be human.
Nisha Ambika I pledge that I will walk tall and will not be afraid while walking on the streets. I pledge that I will own my city and claim my space.
Rana Issa I pledge to keep walking, to teach my daughter to keep walking, and to tell my friends why I am not afraid to keep walking
Deepthi Vinod I pledge to get proper street lights near bannerghatta road,this makes it easy for women to travel and also it will make the streets bright and that way the looners around the corner cannot hide in darkness.
Priyanka Majumdar I pledge to tell girls and women i know, don't stop questioning gender roles, alpha male attitudes. go out, spread the message to friends and women u know. sensitisation can begin at any age. it doesn't matter when u start as long as u do. and yeah, move, travel, be public.
Vaijayantee Bhattacharya I pledge to raise my voice against any injustice against any human being doled out and do every bit that I can in my capacity. I also pledge to bring up my son in a way that he respects women and is sensitive to their pain and suffering.
Annie Zaidi I pledge to smack down every sexist argument that tries to shift blame for sexual violence onto the victim.
Momoko Shimizu I pledge to believe in our power to change ourselves. Be conscious on what shapes our behaviors and stay outraged. #SafeCityPledge
Nandini Arora I pledge not to allow even my friends or family members to speak of the issue of sexual harassment and rape in a light vein. EVER. even if it earns me wrath, disgust, irritation OR any thing at all from those people. I also pledge to understand my own self the rape culture and speak abut it to people...
Sunayana Roy I pledge to speak up every time somebody tells me 'she asked for it'. I pledge to do this no matter what it costs me. #SafeCityPledge


 I say, pledge to speak out and act against sexism and misogyny in art. #SafeCityPledge

 I pledge to wear red lipstick. I pledge to wear chiffon sarees without thinking of whether it attracts too much attention. 

I pledge to continue talking to strangers. I will NOT treat all male strangers as a threat (Dilli Police, u listening?) 

I pledge to seek adventure & peace & solitude & fun. I pledge not to allow fear run my life. What's your  for the new year?

 I pledge to keep taking the regular bus and insisting on more fleets that are not as expensive as the ac volvos. 


Can't find any other way to show my support.. Keep up the good fight guys  

I pledge to do what I have to do, when and with whom I have to, and turn my anger into constructive action. 

 Men should be scared to commit crimes like rape & women should not be scared to walk alone anywhere anytime!