Delhi Women's Commission Launches 'Rape Roko' Movement

In a bid to make the country safer for women, Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal on Tuesday (Feb 13) launched a ‘Rape Roko’ movement against sexual violence. Mass demonstrations across the country will be held on March 8, she announced.

The march

The DCW chief led a march from the Vishwavidyalaya Metro station to the Delhi University Arts Faculty.  She spoke to a gathering of students and urged them to express outrage on crimes against women and infants.

Objective of the march

“I really want that this movement should become a people’s movement. I feel that people will come down on the streets and express their anger in a peaceful manner,” said Maliwal.

The commission, she said, will send 1,00,000 letters containing the commission’s demands signed by 1 lakh individuals to the Prime Minister and work towards turning the ‘Rape Roko’ movement into a true people’s movement.

Also: Why I wrote Onaatah, the story of a rape survivor

“I can’t tell you how horrified, how terrified, how troubled I am... there’s no conversation, there’s no public anger, there’s no outrage,” she remarked on the rape of an eight-month-old some days ago.

“We’ve done whatever we could. We have gone to courts; spoken to leaders; tried writing letters to the government, but it has not worked till now,” she said, adding, “This was why the Rape Roko movement had been launched.”

Other demands

Maliwal also advocated the death penalty within six months of the crime for the perpetrator. She also said that trials of crimes against women should also be completed within six months. “There’s a lack of deterrence, and that is what we are targeting,” she said.