I Will Go Out (or #IWillGoOut) was a nationwide march carried on 21 January 2017 in India to demand women's right to fair and equitable access to public spaces. People marched across 30 cities and towns of India including

Bengaluru Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

, Delhi, Pune, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Puducherry, Silchar, Nagpur,

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

, Jaipur, Bhopal, Udaipur, Kochi and Karimganj and was organized by a collective of individuals and organisations.

Background

On 2 January 2017,

Bangalore Mirror ''Bangalore Mirror'' is a daily English-language newspaper published in Bangalore, India. It is a deputed newspaper and is the second-largest circulating English newspaper in the city ''Vijay Times'' ''Vijay Times'' was an English newspaper st ...

, reported mass molestation of women on New Year's Eve in

, Karnataka. The first person report by Anantha Subramanyam K said, "''Screams for help started ringing in the air as people in dire straits were not able to reach the police as they were caught in a sea of revelers, many of whom were clearly drunk and out of control, and looking to misbehave''." Another article by

reported that about 10 women approached a woman police officer, of which 8 complained about losing their friends in the crowd, one about eve-teasing and one about molestation. In the beginning, the Bengaluru Police Commissioner Praveen Sood acknowledged the mass molestation, invited women who had been assaulted to come forward and promised to take ''suo moto'' action, however, on January 5, he denied that any such event ever occurred and also objected to the term 'mass molestation'. People outraged on social media and sexist comments by politicians like G. Parameshwara and Abu Azmi blaming women and their clothing, 'western culture' and comparing women and men to sugar and ants respectively didn't help.

Preparation and planning

On January 4, a petition was submitted to

Change.org Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...

demanding an unconditional public apology from Abu Azmi and

G Parameshwara Gangadharaiah Parameshwara (born 6 August 1951) is an Indian politician who served as seventh Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, and also the longest-serving President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee for two consecutive terms. E ...

for the comments that have made in the media in response to the series of sexual assaults in

. A group of people, who shared similar views of outrage against increasing cases of sexual violence against women in India, came together online to organize a nationwide march on January 21 and mobilized mainly using social media.

References

External links

*{{official, https://iwillgoout2017.wixsite.com/iwillgoout Social movements in India Protest marches Women's rights in India 2017 in India