In a campaign that began on October 11, International Day of the Girl Child, Save the Children, in collaboration with Yuvaa, is asking that unlit areas across rural and urban India be illuminated. The video above, featuring Karan Johar and Mithila Palkar, illustrates the paralysing fear experienced by women in India when traversing unlit, isolated places at night.
The campaign will continue till January 2020, and asks participants to aid in the endeavour by geo-tagging locations that are unlit or dimly lit, using a link that can be found on Save the Children’s website.
According to a 2018 study published by Save the Children, sixty percent of Indian women feel unsafe in public spaces with inadequate lighting. Naturally, women do not feel they have the same claim over public spaces that men do, for fear of violence and unwanted advances.
The webpage also features a “How safe are you?” checklist, which has been doing the rounds on social media recently. For many, this quiz was revelatory about the variety of measures Indian women employ when leaving the house, or when walking alone, merely to feel safe.
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