Ashish Shukla: A Man Against Acid Attacks

Ashish Shukla: A Man Against Acid Attacks

The Session began with a video,”Heartbeats : They Inspire Us To Live”. As I was watching the video, I was shocked to know that some of attacks were done by a Father, Step Mother etc. and one of the victims told that her father was looking at her from far and listening to hear screams. As the video moved forward, it started its work of giving inspiration to us. After the video ended, he started his speech which was very effective. He told us that before 2013, Acid Attack wasn’t considered as crime and that we actually accept wrong rather than raising our hands against it.

Later he discussed that most of the cases for Acid Attacks were due to One Sided Love, Ego Factor among boys, Peer Pressure, which make them feel like taking revenge for rejection. In addition, he said that people disconnect from the girl on whom the attack gets done. Family members give up even though they support emotionally but they give up on their hope. “Some people treat girls as Insurance Policy once they are born and start saying at certain age, they will get them married.”, He said.

“Ban is not the solution rather we must bring the alternatives which eliminates the use of things that are harmful for us in one way or the other. When we initiated the first campaign, there were many difficulties, we approached them to help and their parents asked us about what will happen after our help and we could only say to them, “Bharosa Rakho (Have Trust)” and they countradicted, “Ladko pe bharosa nai hota, usne hi toh attack kiya hai,”. However, we managed to do our first campaign. We focused on giving them Chhoti Chhoti Khushiyan and gradually they started having faith on themselves and decided to pursue their dreams.”, He continued.

He later told us what the victims used to tell him, which are as follows:

- Pehli baat, koi humse baat nai karta. (First Thing, Nobody Talk To Us.)

- Jab Family Invitations aate hai, toh log kehte hai ke apni beti ko mat lana. (Whenever we get any family invitations, they say don’t bring your daughter with you.)

While moving further with his speech, he informed us about the fields in which all the victims are leaving their mark as a successful person. He took an example of the Fashion Designing and told that Laxmi and Reshma Qureshi were having a show recently with Manish Malhotra.

“They are not survivors. We all are survivors but they are fighters, that’s what I believe.”, Ashish quoted.

He spoke that this issue has brought us to think once again what Beauty is to us and quoted that Beauty is defined by our own thoughts only.

He later talked about Sheroes Hangout, Black Rose In Protest Of Love and that more attacks were done by neighbors only.

At the end of his speech he said, “Aap soch rahe honge main kya kar sakta hoon?”

“You can read about it, and share your opinion on your facebook or blogs or whatever you can do with the given resources. It is not a home work guys, just do it as your responsibility and try to create awareness among people, about what you know.”, he concluded.

Things I Learned From His Speech:

- Be The Change, Only Then Ask Someone Else To Change. (Lesson Credits: Ritu, From Video)

- When You Have Thought And Will Power, You Can Make A Difference That You Want To Bring. (Lesson Credits: Ashish Shukla)

- Do Something With An Intention To Change Yourself, Not The Whole World. That’s How You Will Improve And Bring Difference To The Maximum Extent. (Lesson Credits: Ashish Shukla.)

- Change Your Content Of Social Media That You See, By Yourself. (Lesson Credits: Ashish Shukla)

- We Must Remove The Communication Gap That Is What Gives Rise To Most Of The Problems. (Lesson Credits: Ashish Shukla.)

- Be Good At Your Own Level Under The Given Resources. (Lesson Credits: Ashish Shukla.)

- Bring Change Around You. (Lesson Credits: Ashish Shukla)

- What Matters, Is What You Do With Your Given Resources, In And Around The Place Where You Live. (Lesson Credits: Ashish Shukla)

Thank You for reading,

Regards,

Rohit Sood.