Indian women's group to hold flash mob for Modi during UK visit

A group of Indian women in the UK will stage a "colourful" flash mob to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the UK for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) later this month.

Indian Ladies in UK (ILUK) today said the flash mob, to be staged outside 10 Downing Street, will see dozens of sari-clad women perform a series of dances as a show of support.

The group said it plans to get the slogan #BetaPadhaoBetiBachao (Educate Our Sons to Save Our Daughters) trending as a message from Indian women based in the UK for the Prime Minister to take back to the country.

It also plans to collect hand-written messages from thousands of its members living across the UK in a so-called "treasure box" named #WomanKiBaat to be presented to Modi.

The box will be carried around London in a specially-designed van branded as #ChaltiKaNaamModi.

"It is imperative for all of India's mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters to stop passing on the stigma of inequality and injustice to our boys and start educating them from when they are toddlers that a better world is possible if they treat their female counterparts with generosity, empathy and equality," said Poonam Joshi, founder and executive director of ILUK, which claims to be among the largest Indian women's groups in the country with a membership of around 27,000 first-generation migrant Indian women.

During his last visit to the UK in 2015, the then newly-formed group had presented Modi with a large crochet blanket dubbed the "Unity in Diversity" blanket and made up of 3,500 individual crochet squares handcrafted by its members.

This time the group wants its #BetaPadhaoBetiBachao message to become an extension of the Modi government's widely promoted "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao" initiative, which aims to improve the education, welfare and well-being of girls in India.

Modi is set to arrive in the UK for bilateral meetings on April 18 before the Commonwealth heads of government deliberations on April 19 and 20.