Srishti Bakshi, a gusty woman who undertook a walk from Kanyakumari to Kashmir to create awareness about the security and social status of women in India and their empowerment, ended her journey in Srinagar on Wednesday. The 3,800-km journey was focused on women empowerment through financial and digital literacy as part of the larger CrossBow Miles movement, in association with the National Commission for Women (NCW) and The Hans Foundation
Starting her journey on September 15, 2017, Bakshi walked through Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, New Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir for 230 days. The closing ceremony at Srinagar was conducted at the Delhi Public School after over a 1,000 students walked the last stretch with Bakshi. Her campaign’s social media presence catapulted the movement and made Srishti a prominent figure on Indian social media with many prominent personalities endorsing her initiative.
Throughout the journey, Bakshi and her team conducted approximately 110 workshops on topics like fundamental rights, women empowerment, gender sensitisation, financial and digital literacy, hygiene, sanitation, leadership amongst others. “Deep-rooted misogyny and gender stereotyping cannot change overnight. It is a long process of taking small steps in your own life and then moving towards more active volunteerism. The task of walking for a cause everyday ignites the idea of working for change,” she said.
Srishti, a Hong Kong-based marketing professional quit her job to work for women’s empowerment in September of 2017 when she started her journey to try and empower as many women as she could across the length and breadth of the country. “I was evaluating my journey and my contribution towards empowering women. I realised we have been turning a blind eye to so many things. I discussed this with my husband and he encouraged me to do something about it,” the native of Dehradun had said at the time.
Article Source: Mirrornews.com