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For the first time, 20 sarpanches along with their panches came together to sign a pledge on zero tolerance to violence against women in front of youth from their villages, asha workers, anganwadi workers and other community leaders at an event held on 23rd November at OP Jindal university, collaborating partners of KBC.
In a recently completed safety audit conducted by youth members of Kadam Badao in 20 villages, schools and collaborating universities, youth, young girls in particular have raised several critical questions on the issue of safety and security of girls within their villages, academic institutions as well as their own homes.
On the basis of this activity and various other activities of the Kadam Badao campaign, youth from the campaign locations went on to prepare a 10 point charter putting forth demands to bring the issue of ending violence against women on the agenda of policy makers and decision makers alike. This charter was prepared through a consultative process of 1500 youth from groups in the community and the two participating universities and echoes the voices of 3000 others in the form of signatures collected from youth across the district.
This consultation is one of the several other such consultations that are being planned under KBC. This consultation was designed by the youth members of Kadam Badao as an initiative to hold gram panchayats responsible for taking initiatives to address the issue of violence against women in their own villages. This was critical as the audit indicated that that girls in all the villages do not feel safe at any place in their village, including their homes.
This perception on the contrary varied vastly from the opinion held by the boys in their villages who felt the entire village was safe for the girls.
So indeed it was an event of pride and hope!
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