Morung Express News
Dimapur | June 5
Fifty-three year old Shalija Gupta has been on the road on a motorcycle as long as she can she can remember or care to remember.
After her husband's demise eight years ago, this fiery lady from Mumbai on a Harley Davidson, gifted to her by her late husband, took a u-turn and initiated a campaign called "Bikers against women exploitation."
The campaign kicked off in New Delhi two months ago, then Ahmedabad and Dimapur is the third metro she landed Sunday afternoon.
In Dimapur, Shalija Gupta was warmly welcomed by the Motrocycles Club Nagaland, at Clock Tower Junction, and the bikers gang rode up to Medziphema carrying the banner of "Bikers against women exploitation."
"Exploitation means sufferance and I have suffered a lot in the Indian patriarchal society and I have seen so many economically independent Indian women being harassed and exploited whether at home or work place," Shalija said. "If women are not strong, the home will not be strong, the family will not be strong and ultimately the nation will not be strong," she asserted.
When asked whether she faced any harassment from her late husband, the lady on a motorcycle did not give a direct comment but said her late husband and two children, a son and a daughter, treated her fine all along.
Asked on her landing in Dimapur, Shilaji said she was overwhelmed by the bikers in Dimapur, all males, who volunteered to carry her message.
Observing that bikers spend a lot of money on fuel, she asked, “Why can't they invest their passion in riding at least for a good cause?”
Admitting that rape and physical molestations alone do not constitute crime against women, Shilaji who worked in many corporate houses and international firms, admitted that physical violence is only a part of the violence against women.
