Cycle Rally from Srinagar to Jamia to Raise Awareness for Women’s Safety

[Following is an official Jamia press release dated Nov. 3, 2013]

Raising awareness about ensuring safety for all citizens, particularly women, students, teachers and staff members of Jamia Millia Islamia will take out a cycle rally from 4th to 25th November, 2013, which will travel from Kashmir to Delhi, covering a distance of 1121 kilometres, spreading the message of providing a safe and secure environ for all, including for women.

The Cycle Rally will be flagged off from Srinagar on 9th November 2013 at 10.00 AM by Hon’ble Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, Mr. Omar Abdullah. It will reach Delhi on 25th November 2013 at 2.00 PM and will be received by the Hon’ble Lt. Governor of NCT of Delhi, Shri Najeeb Jung in Jamia.

Holding the belief that society can be empowered only if all members of society are actually empowered, including women, Jamia fraternity has always aligned with the cause of gender empowerment. However, recent spate of violence against women has brought into centre-stage the need for sensitization and raising awareness about crimes against women and society’s role in ensuring gender justice if not gender parity and empowerment.

Jamia has always been in the forefront of carrying forward important social messages to the world, and it is with this objective that Jamia Millia Islamia adopted the unique mode of spreading such messages through cycle rallies that it has taken out from time to time. This concept of Cycle Rally was initiated by the then Vice Chancellor, Mr. Najeeb Jung.

Jamia Millia Islamia organised its First Cycle rally from Pushkar to Delhi in 2010 which carried the message of National Integration and raised the slogan “DILON KO JODO”. The Second Cycle Rally travelled from Wagah Border to Delhi in 2011, spreading the message of Peace and Prosperity and was called “AMAN KA KARWAN”. In 2013, spreading the message of “SAVE WATER, SAVE EARTH”, Jamia’s Cycle Rally travelled from Narkanda, Shimla in Himachal Pradesh to Delhi, sensitizing people about preserving our environment, particularly our water bodies.

This year Jamia will bear the flame for women’s safety and security through a cycle rally that will travel from Kashmir to Delhi from 4th to 25th November, 2013. The rally will cover a distance of approximately 1100 kilometers and will pass through the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Union Territory of Chandigarh to finally reach Delhi. The several objectives of the cycle rally are:

• First and foremost, to generate awareness about women’s safety and security;
• To provide an opportunity to Jamia students to understand the mores of different regions of India;
• To expose Jamia students to challenges as they undertake this strenuous journey so that they develop necessary skills to overcome such situations in life;
• To foster National Integration among the youth of the country.

A team of 25 students (11 Girls and 14 boys) along with 15 staff members from Jamia Millia Islamia will participate in this rally. The Cycle rally will be led by Major (Prof.) N.U. Khan, NCC Officer and Professor in the Department of Social Work at Jamia. During the course of this rally, there will also be local interaction with the villagers and students of the states that the rally will travel through.

This cycle rally is organized by NCC and NSS units of Jamia Millia Islamia in partnership with ONGC Videsh Ltd, ONGC, Steel Authority India Ltd., DD News, Take one, Bureaucracy Today etc.

This year Prof. S.M. Sajid, Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia will send off the team from Jamia in a programme which will be held in the Lawns of Mir Taqi Mir, near the Administration Block of Jamia Millia Islamia, at 3 PM on the 4th of November, 2013. The cyclists will be there with other team members who will interact with the media and share their ideas and vision with them.

All are cordially invited to Jamia on the 4th of November at 3 PM in the Lawns of the Administration Block.