Awill is all it takes to make a change. Entrepreneur and skater, Rana Uppalapati, is skating across the Indian Golden Quadrilateral, covering about 6,000 km in 90 days, all to spread the message of educating the underprivileged girl child.

He flagged off his journey from Bengaluru under the Titan ECHO (Educate to Carry her Onwards) campaign to raise support for the education of 25,000 girl children in India. Despite the growing economy and digitisation, there are many areas in India, especially rural and tribal, where girls are deprived of basic education, where girls are not sent to school, in spite of various facilities provided by the government.

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The decision to choose the Golden Quadrilateral, which connects Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai, for the campaign was deliberate, as a large number of untoward incidents have occurred in areas along these routes. As part of the journey, the campaign will create awareness for over 6 lakh children on child safety.

Uppalapati will also be engaging with people on the way and sharing his experiences in social media. As he skates through villages and towns, he aims to also sensitize the community on child safety by creating, with a focus to teach the children about “good touch and bad touch” and safeguard them against sexual offenders.

Through his efforts, he seems to be questioning that if he can cover the distance of 6,000 km to support the education of 25,000 girl children, can other people take just one step to educate one girl child? Uppalapati also met Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu in the Capital and was felicitated for the initiative.

The Vice-President later tweeted, “Met Shri Rana Uppalapati, who is skating along the Golden Quadrilateral to raise support to educate 25000 girl children and awareness on child safety. Great work for an important social cause. Share, care and follow the journey at: http://bit.ly/ECHOForHer @ranaspace #FORHER”.

Uppalapati is not a professional skater. He said, “I do not feel particularly passionate about skating itself or gratified by going on this journey; but being resourceful is to serve a greater purpose, towards the world around us that belongs to everyone. Skating is just a means to bring people together and spread one of the many messages that can have a positive impact on the community.”