Dr Sarika Mehta, founder of a biking group from Surat, uses her passion to promote the idea of women empowerment, says Angela Paljor
While many ride bikes in pursuit of their passion, only a handful of them do it for a cause. The Biking Queens from Surat not only established a record but won many hearts doing so. For the last two years, 40 women riders have used their motorbikes as a metaphor to raise awareness against patriarchy and its ills. With their bike in tow, they have proved that mastery over any form of challenge is really genderless.
“last year, on June 4, we undertook a world biking expedition under the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Abhiyaan or Save the Girl Child, from Gujarat. We crossed into Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and finally Singapore to convey our crusade for women’s equality and rights across countries which share our concern,” shared Dr Sarika Mehta, the founder of Biking Queens.
On July 19, another half of the group started a pan-India ride, which was flagged off from Surat. “From there we travelled to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Varanasi and headed towards the northern part of the country via Manali, Sarchu, finally reaching leh. On Independence Day, we unfurled the tricolour at Khardung-la, the world’s highest motorable pass in ladakh,” she says. From there, they turned towards Kashmir, swerving into Jammu and descending all the way to Amritsar. On August 20, they reached Delhi, where they have stopped over before turning back to Surat by September.
“This pan-India ride is an initiative to spread the message of Sashakt Nari Sashakt Bharat (Strong Women, Strong India) and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. We covered 13 states and 4,000 plus villages on this route. We distributed education kits in all the schools and anganwadis that we came across. We also worked towards health and hygiene awareness, especially among teenage girls,” said Mehta, who is a psychologist and a mountaineer.
Mehta believes in surmounting obstacles in her path. Someone once told her that a mountaineer could never ride a bike or that women didn’t have it in them to be road junkies and brave the dusty miles. Rather than getting bogged down, she took the criticism positively and worked towards disproving it. Gathering like-minded fiery women, she set up Biking Queens in 2015.
While the Biking Queens started their journey to create awareness and spread happiness, they too benefitted as they learnt a lot from every experience. “Spending time with people across the route taught us that we are not happy with all the infrastructure and facilities – we always end up complaining. On the contrary, people have such limited facilities, yet they are happy and content.”
last year, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Surat, 100 women riders from the group escorted him during his road show. “This made us think about how women from different professions and societies can work towards women empowerment. So we trained women to ride bikes for a period of four to five months. We did this especially since bikes are considered to be the ride of choice for the alpha male. We used it to make a point,” added Mehta.
And the response was overwhelming from small towns and villages. Used to scooties, girls and women showed up for the qualification rounds. The shortlisted were then put through a rigorous training schedule every Sunday from 5 am. Each of the girls had such verve that they procured a bike at any cost for practice, be it of their family members or friends. Finally, they were tested, screened and let through. And when they showed up in the Modi event, many of their parents came to know that their daughters had hidden capacities for the first time.
However, it wasn’t easy. Three years ago, Mehta was not able to find a training centre for women bikers. It was her husband who taught her and she started conducting relay classes. Then, things gradually fell into place. But there were more hurdles to be cleared as learning how to ride was not the end of their problem. Covering a distance from zero sea level to 14,683 above sea level without having time to acclimatise themselves was a big challenge that the bikers faced. “For the last three to four months before the ride, we were continuously monitored in terms of both food and health. Also, when we crossed Sarchu, breathing became a major concern as we hardly had any time to rest. The rough road conditions also made things really tough,” she said.
Moreover, women riding in India face a perennial problem as opposed to men — that of safety. It was obviously a major concern but today the biking group is sure that India is safe when women are together. Riding pan-India is not easy and the safety concern is always prevalent. But Mehta always carries the attitude of “If men can, then why can’t womenIJ”
She recalled how they balanced role-playing and road issues. “We faced bike break-downs, health issues and the stress of managing our children long distance as well but we worked towards it as a team,” she says.
When they started this initiative, 95 per cent people were pessimistic about their success just because of their gender. “We do not count our success in kilometers. Rather we do it with the positive feedback we get from people we have worked with.”
Mehta feels that irrespective of which society a woman belongs to, it is essential for her to come out of her comfort zone and work towards her goals. “Also it is essential to always keep one’s family in the loop rather than walking out on them,” she said.
Talking about their treasured moments along the way, Mehta has innumerable. “As a team, we have had many memorable incidents while working with people. We plan to share our experiences with the world and will soon come up with a book and a documentary film,” she said.