30-yr-old on a mission to empower women

Satinder Pal Singh

Dera Bassi, March 22

Thirty-year-old Srishti Bakshi is on a mission to cover the entire stretch from Kanyakumari to Kashmir on foot, all alone.

She has taken up the mission to create awareness of the security and social status of women in the country.

As part of the campaign, Srishti is undertaking a 3,800-km journey on foot, over 260 days, from Kanyakumari to Kashmir to mobilise communities to make India a safer country for girls and women by empowering them with digital and financial security.

On the road, her target is to cover 25 km to 30 km a day. However, the walk is not her sole aim. She conducts workshops in villages for women and organises sessions in schools and colleges to make the people aware of the current situations and circumstances faced by women.

Srishti, an MBA from ISB, Hyderabad, and a graduate from St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai, had a dream job and was living in Hong Kong with her husband. However, a horrific incident in which a mother and daughter were gang-raped after being dragged out of their car near Bulandshahr in UP in 2016 left a deep impact on her. She decided to give up her high-profile job and created ‘CrossBow’, a movement which aims to empower women and make India a safer place for them.

Shristi said: “I wanted to direct my power and knowledge into doing something about the same and that’s how I decided to walk from Kanyakumari to Kashmir,” shares Srishti, the daughter of an Army officer, after reaching Dera Bassi on Wednesday on foot from Kanyakumari.

Starting her journey on September 15 last year from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, she has already walked through states like AP, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, MP and UP.