The road less taken

When Srishti Bakshi, a marketing executive, was living and working in Hong Kong, coffee table conversations with colleagues and friends were about India's vibrant culture, food offerings from different corners of the country, folk art and music, and even itineraries for an excursion. Amidst these conversations, lurked another query.

"Are women really safe in your country?" was the one question the 31-year-old recalls being asked often.

"I don't blame them — the dire state of women's security in our country makes headlines globally," she laments. All her reasoning and statistics would fall flat in the face of this single concern, filling her with angst.

It was in 2016 that she decided to channel this angst into CrossBow Miles to spread awareness about the gender divide in India by empowering women with digital and financial literacy.

And so, Bakshi set out in an attempt to make a difference — on foot. Walking a 3,800km-long journey from Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, to Srinagar, Kashmir, to make Indian roads safer for women. So far, she has covered Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, and Punjab.

She speaks to us from a rather forlorn Kashmir, where she is on the last leg of her expedition. "Every day, I try covering an average of 30kms. Then my team and I conduct a workshop in the area we are passing by," she says.

Workshops are conducted in collaboration with non-profit organisations and activists. "National Commission for Women, Save the Children, Internet Saathi by Google India and Tata Trusts are some of the organisations we worked with," informs Bakshi. "Till date, we have conducted 110 workshops across the country in educational institutions, rural areas and/or townships. Our focus throughout these lectures is streamlined into creating awareness for women's safety, hygiene, sanitation and leadership," she says.

Bakshi explains what happens in a digital literacy workshop. "The idea is to inform people about voice inputs as a method for Internet search. Most women have a smartphone on them, or one available in the house, but no means of knowing how to utilise its benefits except for prompt phonecalls. Our workshops demonstrate using voice inputs for Google search. For instance, if someone looks for 'zari waali sari', they will get the results," she says, adding that this might not be new information for some, but is a groundbreaking discovery for many.

The marketing expert is backed by a team that takes care of everything when she is on the road. "My job is to do the walking. As you can imagine, doing something like this in India is a logistical nightmare!" she exclaims.

Even as Bakshi takes to the road for a #billionstepsforwomen (as her hashtag on social media goes), the CrossBow Miles app (available on Android and Apple phones) gives one the option to participate in the movement. "As a solution to the largely rhetoric question, 'What can I do about this?', we launched an app for people to donate daily steps and virtual support. With 21 social causes such as saving the girl child and education for girls featured here, one simply needs to choose their cause and donate the steps," she says, adding that people have donated around 62 million steps so far.

With Bakshi finally arriving in Kashmir, CrossBow Miles aims at concluding the walk on May 2. "We are finishing our March a month in advance!" beams Bakshi, who intends to work on technological solutions to social problems when her walk has concluded.