Kerala's laypeople complete ‘respect women’ pilgrimage

(March 30,2011) In southern India’s Kerala State, a lay ecclesial group has completed a unique pilgrimage to stress the need to treat women with more respect. The pilgrimage “Nirmal Jyothi Prayan” or pilgrimage of the “Friends and Birds of the Air “ – FBA was held to express outrage at an attack earlier this year on a young woman called Soumya. A man tried to rob the woman on a train, but when she tried to fight him off, he threw her from a moving carriage and raped her on the tracks. She died of her injuries six days later. The incident shocked many people and the FBA led by founder Fr. George Kuttickal, decided to act to protest such cruel attacks on women. Fifty people, divided in two groups of 25, fanned across the northern and southern parts of Kerala, where crimes against women are on the rise. The pilgrimage started from Soumya’s home in Shorannur on March 1 and ended in Panathur in Kasargode district March 26. Holding placards and chanting prayers they went from district to district. They stopped in front of churches or in public places and gave talks about cruelty against women and the need to respect them. FBA members also held workshops on how to make society safer for women. Fr. Kuttickal said “We organized this campaign to awaken public awareness.”