This Dusshera in Madhya Pradesh while all were burning effigies of Ravana in the evening,  adolescents of the village Nagor of Jhabua district, village Hadha of Umaria district, and youth changeloomers of Harda and in Bhopal NGO Spandan and its partners were burning effigies of different kind.

These were effigies of social evils like child marriage, malnutrition, violence against women, dowry, and gender discrimination. Gayatri Parihar of Vasudha Sanasthan which works for women and children in Jhabua and Umaria says we need to say to no violations of rights of children and women, which are social evils. This was strongly felt by adolescents with whom we engage in Jhabua and Umaria and they only prepared the effigy and worked on the issues.

In Harda youth changeloomers prepared the effigy, highlighting challenges and burnt them with a message to say no to these in Harda and MP.

Anil Soumitra of Spandan NGO in Bhopal said we burnt effigy of these evils and with a message of saying no to them and taking steps to eradicate these challenges. The effigy was burnt at Jawahar Chowk in Bhopal.

It is 2018 and while Ravana may be resting in his grave, the millennial generation has its own devils to fight and many Ravanas to be defeated. In the age of internet and rampant social media use, it is easy to fall prey to many Ravanas who try to take advantage under the convenient guise of an innocent person. However, if we stay alert and take some quick action, we can conquer these new-age Ravanas... and well, not have to engage in a full-fledged war with a ten-headed man in a foreign land.