I have been a volunteer with SHE matters for almost a year now, and usually I am the one handling the behind the scenes work. Planning routes. Coordinating schools. Checking placards. Calling teachers who always say, “Yes, yes, we are coming” and then disappear for two days. This year’s peace walk at Wadia College Chowk was no different. For two weeks straight we were sorting permissions, arranging water stations, finalising speaker timings and preparing emergency kits we hoped we would not need.
Most days I was exhausted before the event even began. But this morning, when I reached the chowk and saw the first group of students arriving with their banners held high, something shifted inside me. Suddenly all the late night WhatsApp messages and the early morning planning calls felt worth it.
I was responsible for a group of Class Ten girls. I had seen their names on our attendance sheet for days but meeting them in person was different. They stood close to each other at first, whispering nervously and clutching their placards like they might
drop them. But when the Women in Power speakers began addressing the crowd, the girls slowly straightened. I could see them absorbing every word as if someone was finally naming the things they always felt but never said out loud.
One girl asked me what “dignity in public spaces” really means. We talked about it as we walked. She kept nodding quietly, almost like she was filing the idea away for later. These tiny conversations, the ones no one writes about, feel like the real work to me. What surprised me most today was the number of boys and men who joined the walk. Not standing at the back. Not watching from the side. They were walking with us, chanting with us. It reminded me that safety is not a women’s burden. It is a community responsibility. Seeing them there made our message feel larger and more real.
By the time we completed the route, the girls who had arrived shy and uncertain were chanting with confidence. Their voices were louder. Their steps were firmer. They kept looking around at the crowd like they could not believe they were part of something this big.
Standing there, watching everything we planned finally unfold, I felt an emotion that surprised me. It was hope. As someone who has worked in gender spaces for years, I know change is slow and messy. But today, watching teenage girls speak up and young boys walk beside them, I felt like something had shifted. Even if it was small. Awareness does not begin with speeches.
Sometimes it begins with showing up.
Sometimes it begins with a walk.
And today, when I saw the faces of those girls at the end, I knew we had done something that mattered.
Rhea, Age 25
SHE Matters – Peace Walk
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