Hailing from Bhubaneshwar, 35- year- old Rishika Sahoo has been relentlessly driving her message across the length and breadth of India on her TVS scooty – ‘Save the girl child of India’. Starting her mission on September 14, she has travelled over 16000 kms alone so far, carrying the message ‘Beti Bachao’. On Friday morning, Rishika Sahoo reached the holy city Haridwar on her scooty with a highway banner stating her mission. Wherever she goes, she holds the banner aloft and people gather to listen to her, she claims. The students of Mahila Vidyalaya and Art of living volunteers gathered in the morning to listen to her and the school girls pledged not to give dowry when they would marry, something that is part of her mission
“Though I am attached to a social group I go my own way to spread the message. I hold conferences, gather people on the roadsides and tell the young girls not to burden their parents on the issue of dowry. Youths alone can change this system,” said Rishika.
Married to an engineer, she is being whole-heartedly supported by her in-laws. “They support me and never have they complained for my being engaged in what I am doing. It is their cause too,” she said.
Speaking to The Pioneer, Rishika said it was the 27th state in India that she was covering. “Mat lo beti ki jaan, beti bhi badha sakti hai apki shaan” was her slogan, extolling the people not to kill their daughters. “In many states of India, the baby girls are straightway drowned in rivers or lake, a terrible practice, an anathema for resurgent India,” she said.
“One crore daughters are being killed in India every year. It seems India does not need daughters.” She exhorted the girls who gathered to listen to her not to kill the daughters if they are blessed with them after marriages. “Doctor is just a tool, decision is always of the mother,” said the activist.