NEW DELHI: National President of the Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the BJP and Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha Anurag Singh Thakur launched a nation-wide campaign, Honour Our Women (H.O.W.) Foundation that transcends all political barriers to unite on one platform the laudable individual efforts of various civil society groups, NGOs, student bodies, government representatives, politicians, media, corporates and individuals, and to work collectively and constructively towards charting out a concrete set of steps and future course of action for promising and securing empowerment, safety respect and honour for our women.

The campaign will work on the streets and in schools and colleges in every state capital across India, to bring a change ground-up by sensitising men on respecting women.

Thakur said, “The HOW initiative is a befitting tribute to one woman who lost her life, but awakened a million others. A year back, when thousands of men and women took to the streets in protest, they weren’t just demanding justice for Nirbhaya – they also wanted a guarantee that there will not be any more Nirbhaya cases ever again. But despite new laws and all the policing, cases of rape and crime against women only seem to be on the rise. In wake of the growing public pressure, the measures taken under the current system have put a heavy skew only on legislative and judicial interventions without looking at the social fabric of the society. This legislative approach needs to be complemented with a direct grassroots approach to get men to speak up and convince other men to join hands in Honouring Our Women through concrete action.”

Eminent people from various walks of life including politics, journalism, government and cinema were witnessed at the launch of the initiative to pledge their commitment and to discuss effective measures of bringing this change in male mind set to honour women and on ways to spread the message across our personal and professional lives.

Anurag Thakur, Arun Jaitley and Baijayant Panda at launch of Honour Our Women initiative (16 Dec)

The speakers included Rajya Sabha leader of the opposition, Arun Jaitley; M P (Lok Sabha) from Biju Janata Dal Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda; Times Now editor in chief Arnab Goswami; IBN7 Managing Editor Ashutosh; Headlines Today editor-at-large Rahul Kanwal; actor Vivek Oberoi; author Chetan Bhagat; and stand-up comic Kapil Sharma.