Shillong, Sept 26: Another social activist endeavoring to ‘stop violence against women’ has reached Shillong on her bicycle after an arduous one month journey in attempting to spread the message across the Northeast.
18 year old Sougaijam Bidyalakshmi Leima started her cycling tour on August 21st 2013 completing approximately 2175 kilometres throughout northeast states namely Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and is now in Meghalaya.
While addressing a press conference at the Shillong Press Club today Bidyalakshmi said, “I read reports of crimes against women in newspapers almost daily and am concerned about the rise of such crimes, particularly rape, not only in Manipur but also in other parts of the northeast; so I thought I can contribute something in the fight to end gender violence.”
In Shillong Bidyalakshmi had an interaction with the students of Shillong College discussing at length the issue of crime against women and commented on the positive response she received.
“Wherever I went with my message the response was good from the people that I had interacted with and I hope that this violence can really be stopped,” Bidyalakshmi said.
Upon reaching Shillong on Wednesday evening the cyclist was taken aback by the night road blockade, however expressed her admiration of the help and assistance given to her.
Bidyalakshmi who is scheduled to depart Shillong for Tripura on Friday morning said, “I reached at around 8.30 PM last evening, not aware of the road blockade but fortunate enough to have the police personnel who escorted me to my destination. I am very thankful to them for their help.”(SP News)
