Actress Aradhana Sharma has spoken up about women’s safety following the disturbing incident in Bihar’s Jamui, where two Class 10 students were allegedly stopped and assaulted by a group while returning from a coaching class. Taking to Instagram, she shared an 11-slide post questioning whether government campaigns and schemes aimed at women’s empowerment are translating into safety on the ground. Her post came after videos of the Jamui incident surfaced on social media and triggered widespread outrage.
According to reports, the incident took place on September 19 in Jamui. The two minor students were allegedly stopped by a group of people while returning from the area after attending coaching. Videos of the incident later circulated online, showing the teenagers being confronted, assaulted and harassed. Police subsequently registered a case, formed a Special Investigation Team and arrested three suspects.
The National Commission for Women also took suo motu cognisance of the matter and called for the identification and arrest of those involved, along with a time-bound investigation. Authorities have separately warned against circulating material that could reveal the identity of the minor victim.
Against this backdrop, Aradhana began her post by referring to slogans and initiatives associated with women’s welfare, including Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Mission Shakti and Nari Shakti. “Beti bachane ke posters nahi… beti ko bachane wala system chahiye,” she wrote, making the distinction between messaging around women’s empowerment and the implementation of safety measures.
Rather than simply criticising the schemes, her post also explains what they are intended to achieve. She describes Beti Bachao Beti Padhao as a programme focused on the survival, protection, education and development of the girl child. The Ministry of Women and Child Development describes BBBP as a behavioural and social-change programme aimed, among other objectives, at preventing gender-biased sex selection, improving the sex ratio at birth and increasing girls’ enrolment while reducing school dropouts.
Aradhana also refers to Mission Shakti, the government’s umbrella programme for women’s safety, security and empowerment. Officially, Mission Shakti has two components, Sambal, focused on safety and security, and Samarthya, focused on empowerment. Its components include One Stop Centres, Women Helplines, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Nari Adalats, among others.
Her point, however, is about the gap she perceives between the existence of such programmes and what women experience in everyday life. “Posters badal sakte hain. Kanoon kagaz par maujood ho sakte hain. Yojanaen apni jagah zaroori hain. But implementation is what creates change on the ground,” she wrote in the carousel.
She cites crime data while making her point. Her post also refers to National Crime Records Bureau data, pointing to 4,48,211 cases of crimes against women reported in 2023, compared with 4,45,256 in 2022. She also mentions the 29,670 rape cases recorded in 2023. Those figures correspond with NCRB data reported after the release of the Crime in India 2023 report. The data recorded 4,48,211 crimes against women in 2023 and 29,670 reported rape cases.
For Aradhana, the figures reinforce her central question: how effectively are policies, laws and support mechanisms protecting women and girls in real-world situations? She asks, “How long will our daughters have to wait?”
The actor also addressed the expectation placed on families and individuals to keep their loved ones safe. In one slide, she asks what people expect from the person responsible for protecting a family to ensure their loved ones are safe, stand by them in difficult situations and help when needed.
She then draws a parallel with the responsibility of the state, questioning why citizens should have to ask for something as fundamental as safety. Her final message is less about another campaign and more about implementation.
Aradhana argues that women do not need another message telling them to be strong if the circumstances around them continue to leave them vulnerable. Instead, she calls for systems that make women and girls feel safe in the first place.
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