Fwd: [Imagining India Together : Lok Satta Party's Blog] Please. Not another child.

[Srinivas Alavilli]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Balaji Chitra Ganesan <bala...@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 23, 2014 at 10:03 AM
Subject: [Imagining India Together : Lok Satta Party's Blog] Please. Not another child.
To: alav...@gmail.com

The blog post written by Maithreyi Nadapana is republished here. Maithreyi from Loksatta HSR Layout is leading Loksatta Party Karnataka's efforts to get justice to the child sexually assaulted by a staff member in a Bangalore School.

Loksatta Party press meet seeking immediate action to make Bangalore safe for women and children. The press release issued can be found here.

One more innocent child comes under sexual assault. And this time not just in some home or isolated place, it happened inside an upmarket school, that too during the school hours. This is a shock. If a high end school can’t ensure the safety of my child, then who can. I thought of my two young daughters. A shiver ran through my spine. I just thought what that child would be going through. How it will impact her outlook towards the world, how much of a pain she must have gone through. It rattled me. I felt breathless. On hearing that the school has shirked its responsibility off the whole affair, and in fact tried to hush it up, has enraged me further.

Its just not about this one child, in the last one week, there were unbelievable brutal attacks on women of all ages, from all strata of society. What’s wrong? How can I step out without fear of getting dragged in to a passing car. How do I walk on road anymore? I don’t want to live in fear. It’s my basic right to be able to live without fear, with dignity in a safe society. For long, we were complacent with ‘it didn’t affect me, so I don’t care’ kind of attitude.

I was perturbed. Disturbed beyond words.  “What can I do?”  These words haunted me.

I was clear. This time, I don’t want to sit back and cry.  I don’t want to control my emotions. I no more want to blame the world. I need to take charge. Let me do something, which will really create an impact, a long lasting one, which will be a beginning to the end of atrocities committed by mindless, cruel, digressed beings that are a shame to humanity.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it happen. But change.org seemed to give me a platform to express my anguish, to gather the support of like minded people, who don’t want to just sit and crib, but want to be the path to Action. I have signed many before, but for the first time, I started a petition by myself. Quickly it’s no more my fight; it became ‘OUR FIGHT’. Collectively, our voices have much larger impact, and I am intent upon taking everyone along with me in this journey to achieve our collective goal.

At almost the same time, I saw another petition started by another mother which was taking off online, much faster. I was glad that there is more support pouring in. It’s time we make ourselves Matter. It’s time the Government realizes we are not ones to be taken for granted.

References:

*  A mother petitions, seeks CM to act now on ensuring women safety in Bangalore.

* Immediately Announce A Roadmap and Timeline To Make Bangalore Safe.

* Maithreyi's interview with NDTV.

* Parents take the online route to be heard.

* Loksatta Party Karnataka Press Release.

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Posted By Balaji Chitra Ganesan to Imagining India Together : Lok Satta Party's Blog on 7/23/2014 10:03:00 am

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