‘Enough! No more violence against women’

--One Billion Rising campaign launched

BHUBANESWAR: One Billion Rising (OBR) campaign, which is a global call to action to end violence against women and girls, organised by the OBR Odisha team has been launched here on Saturday. The campaign would continue till February 14, 2013, said the OBR team.

The campaign, initiated by activist and actor Eve Ensler, aims to mobilise and bring out one billion people on streets across the world on the coming February 14 against violence against women and to celebrate women’s power. The OBR has already been successfully launched in Nepal and Bangladesh and Sangat, an organisation working for women cause, has launched the same in Delhi on Saturday.

People from 160 countries, including India, have responded to this global call by launching OBR campaigns in their respective countries. The people from all sectors have joined together to end violence against women and to create a better world for women and girls.

Most of the regions of the country, including Odisha, have started the campaign to sensitise the people of the State to end violence against women as more than half of women population living in the State are facing domestic violence. According to the Government data, 1112 women were raped and 4085 women experienced dowry related violence during 2011 in the State. Apart from that, 2054 women and 1517 girls were trafficked during last year, the data revealed.

“It is very unfortunate that one in every three women in the world faces violence which shows that the condition of women who are living with uncertainty and fear. In our State also most of the poor women are engaged in unorganised sector where they face gender violence. So, enough is enough, no more violence against women from today,” said a women activist and a prominent member of OBR Odisha team Pramila Swain.

The posters, leaflets, banners and other publicity materials were unveiled by the guests during the launching ceremony. Among others, freedom fighter Bhabani Patnaik, Dr Sarat Pujari, Dr Prabhat Nalini Das, Tapasi Praharaj, Dr Chirashree Indrasingh, Nibedita Acharya and Pramila Swain were present.