In PHOTOS: The bold and beautiful at Kolkata's SlutWalk

With a group of youngsters stepping forward to hold a SlutWalk rally, Kolkata has now joined the global movement of protest marches against sexual harassment.

It all began in January 2011 when a police officer from Toronto, Canada said, "Women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised." The remark created fury and it snowballed into a movement of sorts -- SlutWalk.

Angry women took to the streets in Toronto and in no time the protest spread across Canada. Jumping borders and even continents similar marches were held in United States, United Kingdom and Australia by April last year.

Watch: Kolkata's SlutWalk parade 

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The SlutWalk demonstrations became the talk of the town and reached Indian shores. Last year, Delhi and Mumbai saw demonstrations where women from all walks of life poured onto to the streets to raise their voices over "damaging stereotypes."

Of course reclaiming the word slut in the movement, which has become synonymous to a protest against sexual violence, created a furore in the country. But that did not stop Mumbai and Delhi to go ahead with the SlutWalk.

A year on, SlutWalk has trundled into Kolkata. Wearing skimpy clothes and flaming red lipstick a group of students of Jadavpur University marched through the streets of the West Bengal capital on Thursday.

A group of around 300 youngsters marched from the varsity campus to Triangular Park challenging the stereotype that 'women are abused sexually because they dress up like sluts".

Women and even men joined the SlutWalk to raise their voices against several incidents of alleged rape, at least two of which were described by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as "staged".

Adding fuel to the fire, State Minister for Sports Madan Mitra had also questioned the integrity of the rape victim in the incident on Park Street in February.

Armed with placards with slogans like 'My curves, my choice', 'My genitals do not define my gender', and 'No outfit is an invitation to rape' hundreds of protesters hoped to draw attention to the growing problem harassment and violence that women in Kolkata are facing.

Young girls walked in all kinds of dresses right from sarees, salwar kameez to jeans and skirts to challenge the beliefs of those who accuse street sexual harassment victims of dressing immodestly in public.

"We are told that the onus lies on us to prevent its occurrence. We are told to dress appropriately, to come back home on time, to not attract attention to ourselves. And the worst of all, we are expected to accept sexual harassment or forms of eve teasing as a part and parcel of our societal culture," complained Kolkata University student Priyanka Dutta, one of the participants.

Participants painted themselves with slogans besides carrying posters and wearing painted T-shirts to spread the message that women have the right to wear what they want without fearing any kind of abuse.

"We want to bring fore the point that one can be sexually harassed even while being clothed from head to toe," film studies student Sulakshana Biswas, one of the organisers, told PTI.

"To call someone a slut because of the way one dresses or behaves is to malign someone's character on the basis of gender. Our effort is to correct this," the activist said.

Many of the participants were victims of sexual harassment.

"This rally acts as a cathartic experience for us as it not only creates awareness about the cause but also counters the tendency to brush off harassment or live in denial about its existence," said a 20-year-old student of St Xavier's College.

At the end of their rally, artists from Fourth Bell Theatre group performed short plays and recited poetries on sexual abuse written by famous Urdu poet Saadat Hassan Manto and Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi.

With inputs from PTI 

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