Chennaiites to flag off movement to protect and empower women

“There are mainly six agendas to our programme — individual, community, governance, law enforcement, judicial implementation and policymaking. At the individual level, we will be educating women on crime preventive aspects, online safety and using technology and finally, as the last resort, self-defense. The next step is the community level where we will be visiting schools, colleges, other educational institutions and tech parks to create awareness and sensitise them to be protective of one another. At the governance level, our aim is to ensure safety in public spaces by working with various departments like transport, electricity, tourism, education and social welfare,” says VS Sridhar, one of the core members.

Other team members include ‘Kravmaga’ Sreeram, Anand, Sriram Sharma and Swarnalatha Mahesh. The team is planning to launch the movement officially on February 8 in the city. Once they launch the movement, their immediate plan is to energise on women empowerment by training school and college students for staging the valiant story of Velu Nachiyar, a native Tamil queen who fought against the British colonial power in India. “Our idea is to consider Velu Nachiyar as an embodiment of women empowerment. One of our members Sriram Sharma, a theatre director and playwright, has specialised in the dance drama titled Velu Nachiyar. He will be training the students — bringing together students in a common cultural activity will be more attractive than just self-defense training. By staging the play, we are also planning to mobilise funds for various outreach programmes in schools, colleges and communities,” he adds.