Foolish to say that women should be home-bound: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Thiruvananthapuram: Rubbishing the view that if women remained home-bound much of the violence against them could be avoided, Art of Loving (AOL) guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Thursday said in a civil society women enjoyed all rights that men are entitled to.

"It is so foolish to say women should remain at home. I don't agree with this theory. Women have the freedom to go anywhere of their choice any time," he said. Reacting to queries on row sparked by some spiritualists by making statements on these lines in the wake of the Delhi gang rape incident, he said he also did not subscribe to the view that compared to cities villages were safer for women in India.

"Even in villages such things are happening. Some times they go unnoticed," he said. He said he would not recommend death penalty for rapists as suggested by certain quarters since more and more civilised societies the world over were coming out against capital punishment."I am for life imprisonment in such case, not death penalty," he said.

The Art of Loving (AOL) guru said that in a civil society women enjoyed all rights that men are entitled to.

Ravi Shankar, who has been in Kerala for the last few days, said the AOL would be launching a campaign to mobilise youth to organise "neighbourhood watches" for the safety of women.

Ravi Shankar said AOL also planned to spearhead a drive to organise youth against corruption in politics and awaken the voters to back the right candidates.

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