A bus ride to remember victim of Dec 16 gang rape

Activists from Delhi's red light area and students Monday boarded a bus from Connaught Place and rode to Munirka in south Delhi, where the Dec 16, 2012 gang rape victim had boarded a bus with a friend before being sexually assaulted.

The objective was to tell people that no amount of violence was going to push them back into a solitary cocoon.

The bus ride, organised by Apne Aap Women Worldwide, a Delhi-based organisation that works to end sex trafficking, was on behalf of the "last girl", a symbolic reference to to someone who is poor, female, a teenager, and low caste, who is raped for prostitution, or when she goes to school or boards a bus to go to a job or a movie.

"She is invisible and not included in any government or international laws and policies," Ruchira Gupta, the founder of Apne Aap, told IANS.

"What we mean by last girl is someone who is the weakest person in a family. She is a daughter, poor and low caste and has no right to decide for herself. These people always remain untouched by government policies," she added.

This endeavour will continue all over the world and end in New York at the United Nations with a call to action in March 2015 during the International Women's Day.

Gupta plans to bring the issues of this last girl in notice of the UN when they have the Millennium Development Goals meeting.

"These goals have so far neglected the last girl. The policies have only reached richest among the poor. So it is important to bring this to their notice and we hope this march is able to send across that message," Gupta said.