Indian Women In UK Meet PM Modi, Requests Him To Educate Boys To Save Girls

Growing up, we’ve seen India portraying women as Goddesses and electing them in leading positions of the country. Additionally, we’ve been taught to respect our country like we respect our mothers and treat every woman like our daughters and sisters. But somewhere down the line, us men forgot all about it, leading to Narendra Modi’s desperate plea to educate women.

However, after inaugurating the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign in 2015, things have started to deteriorate for Indian women once again. There has been a catastrophic rise in violence against them, with the Kathua and Unnao rape and murder cases shocking the entire globe. That’s why a group of Indian women residing in London came up with a request to tweak the PM’s idea.

According to NDTV, PM Narendra Modi met with a group called Indian Ladies in the United Kingdom (ILUK) during his UK visit. There he was presented with a box full of messages from Indian women that reflected the group’s initiative, ‘Beta Padhao, Beti Bachao’.

The box that was presented to Modi was designed by artist and ILUK member Komal Hoskotii with a banner that read ‘#Womann Ki Baat, PM Modi Ke Saath’. Apart from that, the chest itself contained messages from Indian women all across the UK about what they hope and expect India’s future to look like.

Poonam Joshi, who is the leader of ILUK, explained that the revised version of PM Modi’s slogan furthered their message of educating Indian men and boys to improve the situation of women in India. She added that the education shouldn’t focus on equality and empathy only, but on integral topics like menstrual and reproductive health as well.

This message resonated so much with PM Modi that he spoke about it during his election rally in Madhya Pradesh, requesting families to better educate their sons regarding their treatment of girls. Joshi spoke up in support of the PM and said,

“we have been hugely encouraged by the work that he has carried out in India, whether it is with his ‘Swachh Bharat’ initiative or his measures to improve the circumstances of the girl child. The challenges are many as we have seen in recent days.  So it is vital that we support PM Modi and work with him to bring about change and create a modern, progressive India.”

Joshi addressed how most of the news in India revolves around the injustice towards women, and how that can be changed.

“India is the most dynamic and talked-about country in the world right now.  There is so much hope and potential for the future of our country. And yet, the global discourse about India is dominated by stories of oppression against women and minorities. We believe that the only way to change that conversation is by promoting education, specifically the education of our boys.”

Speaking from experience, Poonam  talked about the responsibility of mothers and how this change can be brought about in our society.

“As a mother of three boys, there is no greater duty for me than to educate my sons, not just to have amazing jobs in the future but to respect and empathise with their female counterparts.”

The Indian-born social leader also drew attention to the fact that the inequality between Indian boys and girls generates from women as well.

“It is imperative for all of India’s mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters to stop passing on the stigma of inequality and injustice to our boys and start educating them from when they are toddlers that a better world is possible if they treat their female counterparts with generosity, empathy and equality.”

After the repeated cases of violence against women, India has doubled security and passed an ordinance to hang child rapists. However, this message from this group of 27,000 Indian women might be the most important one because it strikes at the core of India’s problems. Nobody’s saying that change will be easy but it’s one that should come from men and should come quickly.

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