At a very nascent age in my life, I decided to learn Karate and realised that it not only gives me physical strength but also gives me an immense sense of emotional and mental strength to stand up tall against all odds. Being born in a conservative Rajput family, I was always bullied by my dominating brother who had a great impact on my life making it a struggle. With no choice but to stand up and protecting myself, I started training and made sure that I am undefeated against any man who tries to suppress me with their superiority. I made sure that I am self-sufficient but to my surprise I often found myself indulging in fights to save other girls I knew and constantly thought “Why can’t girls fight for themselves?”
The seed that was subconsciously planted in me, bore fruits years later in 2016 when I started my very own dream mission called the Pink Belt Mission. With the objective to strengthen every Indian woman by providing them health awareness, safety techniques, legal rights, cybercrime, self-defence, computer literacy, and vocational training in order to prevent sexual and domestic abuse, I started the mission.
With a belief that strong women make a stronger community, In February 2020, Pink Belt Mission was awarded a Guinness World Record for organising the largest self-defence workshop and we trained more than 1.5 Lakh women in various sectors. After the record-breaking event at Agra, the nationwide lockdown due to the COVID 19 pandemic brought the entire world to a standstill but my mission never stopped. In the course on manifesting the dream of a safer country for women, I came across several records claiming heart-wrenching truth.
In 2019, 1 Rape wad reported every 13 Minutes in India, more than 1000 acid attacks took place and over 30% of attacks on women were that of domestic abuse, according to National Crime Records Bureau. Apart from the need to actually try to prevent such untoward and unacceptable crimes, the root issue of delayed medical assistance during such unprecedented times, leading to the death of a large number of victims was something I couldn’t unsee.
There are so many laws in place which are meant to protect our women, but are people really aware of them? Do we ensure that lack of information hold us back from giving our victims the help they deserve?
As per section 357C of IPC, a rape victim is to be MANDATORIALY provided treatment free of cost, even at a private hospital. Why such delay in medical assistance? Why is the number of death due to rapes only rising?
We have witnessed so many deaths due to rapes. We have seen so many acid attack survivors lose vision and live with stigma their entire lives. Every time Pink Belt Mission comes across such incidents, one of the most alarming problems is delay in assistance that could either prevent the crime or provide medical aid swiftly. Through relentless efforts, the Pink Belt Mission have formulated an unwaveringly strong system that will require our government’s support to bridge the gap between proposing a lifesaving concept and making the ‘Pink Belt’ a reality. The ‘Pink Belt’- is an idea of an assault alert band that will have features like Live GPS tracking which can alert the nearest local authorities, medical centers and family members with just the press of a button, enabling women who are in danger to either get protection and access to medical aid in a timely manner.
With this ecosystem we not only aim to benefit an individual in danger but shares power with people in the vicinity of the attack to seek immediate assistance. To heed this concept on paper, we urge every single individual to sign the petition that can further become a nation awakening movement. With the petition we are not limited to just signatures on the petition, we aim to impact lives through this novel concept with the support of the government and the people of India.
Petition Link – https://pinkbeltmission.org/iwantmypinkbelt/
I realized that the basic fabric of the society cannot be changed single headedly; the government has to become an active part of the solution. Despite the presence of law for women, lack of awareness makes everything go vain. Pink Belt Mission also steered conversations among the people through a hard hitting video, mirroring the harsh reality of the women in our country. Through this petition and the video we want to be heard and make one-of-a-kind concept become reality and enables us go miles to make this country safer for women.
Video Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jNXXyBdLeE
I would urge every single individual to join hands with Pink Belt Mission making #IWantMyPinkBelt a movement to unite the country for a safer tomorrow
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About The ‘Pink Belt’ concept A concept of a device designed in the form of a band to be worn around the wrist by a woman serving as her protector. The concept of the product has been designed to have a button, which upon being pressed triggers an alert through an inbuilt SIM card. The alert from the product is shared with the nearest police station, which can then dispatch personnel to the victims’ location and the right steps to help her can be taken. The safety device will be embedded within the coating of a silicone casing for durability & other functional requirements linked to your GPS location without the need of any internet accessibility. It will also have inbuilt sensors which will get activated upon extreme force, so if an attacker tries to pull or break the device an automatic alert shall be triggered with the victims’ exact location.
