Around 700 young women and men from 17 districts of Uttar Pradesh participated in the launch of the campaign in Lucknow on 9 December 2004. It opened with the performance of four street plays at 21 locations in the city. It helped generate visibility for the launch and attention towards the issues. The students also engaged in a lively debate on the subject “Increasing western influence – Is this a reason for increasing violence on women?” The evening was devoted to cultural activities like plays, folk songs and shadow puppetry.

On 10 December 2004, young women and men along with students from Lucknow participated in a march to advocate for the human rights of women. The highlight of the rally were the three tableaux’s created by student teams from Varanasi and Bundelkhand depicting child sexual abuse, sexual harassment at workplace and domestic violence.

The rally ended with an address by noted social activist and lyricist Javed Akhtar. He raised many significant issues: the dipping sex ratios in the country; the rise in crime statistics against women; the regressive nature of Personal Laws in the country (particularly the Muslim Personal Law); the pervading discrimination of women from birth to death and in every field; the reiteration of gender stereotypes in society and the negative portrayal of women in the media.

He recited his poem Dobara that he wrote especially for his daughter. “This is not just for my daughter, it’s for the country’s daughters,” he said. He urged people to stop treating women as devis (goddess’) and look at them as equal partners in society. He also gave away prizes to students from Bundelkhand who had written essays on violence against women earlier. He along with Dr. Rooprekha Verma also led a pledge to respect human rights and strive to create a world safe for women, children and all other marginalised sections.

Many girls who were given the opportunity to travel to Delhi to participate in national launch were happy that their parents allowed them to go. They said they felt far more confident of themselves after having travelled out of the state. Many of these students were keen that their parents come to the campaign launch in the state so that they too could learn and alter commonly held perceptions. One college girl, who was denied permission to attend the launch by her father, felt that she should have asked him to listen to Javed Akhtar’s speech so that he understood that he was actually violating her rights.