Moved by her grit, motley crowd turns up to support later in Pimpri.
Shital Jhungade (20) of Bhosari single-handedly started a protest at Pimpri Chowk on Sunday to demand justice for the Delhi gang-rape victim. She stood with her placard right from morning, though she was alone. However, her grit and determination ensured that a motley crowd of protesters turned up to lend support to the cause.
Her perseverance brings to mind the initiative, though on a much larger and massive scale, by Liberian peace activist and Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee. Along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, she started the ‘Pray for Peace’ initiative in war-torn Liberia in 2003, which forced the warring factions to come to the negotiating table and sign a peace accord. Both Sirleaf and Gbowee shared the Nobel Prize in Peace with Yemenian women rights activist Twakel Karman in 2011.
The ghastliness of the gang-rape as well as the feeling of insecurity by women propelled Shital to take to the streets alone to protest. “I have not been able to sleep properly after I read about the incident. What worries me is that in most cases, the perpetrators of the crime are granted bail.”
Shital added, “Rape is not just a crime against the modesty of the woman, but also a violation of the very threads of her existence. We must have stronger laws to deal with this,” she said.
Shital works with the automobile industry at Hinjewadi. With Sunday being her day off, Shital, who has two younger siblings and mother at home, decided to come out on the streets alone to make her protest felt.
Apart from demanding justice, this gutsy girl also said her solitary protest was to awaken society, which she feels is lackadaisical, towards crime against women.
“People tell us girls to ignore cases of cat calls and lewd remarks by passers-by most of the time, which I think is wrong. The society at large should wake up and stop this attitude,” she said.
Although Shital had called up many of her friends since the morning to join her protest, only two of them, Dhiraj Bhandar and Pravin Ubale turned up.
In fact, Shital stood alone from 9 am at the busy Pimpri Chowk carrying a placard demanding justice. The spot was just opposite the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) building, which has a lady mayor and 50% of the corporators are women.
At 11.30 am, corporators Seema Salve, Asha Shendge and others joined her. Salve got to know about the solitary protester after being informed by some passers-by. “As soon as I heard about this, I came to the spot with Asha Shendge and others. We must stand up for this brave initiative,” she said.
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