Campaign Chronicle

And so we close the 2010 campaign season...

2010-12-25T19:14:00.000+05:30

This has been such a challenging campaign to organize: new partners, new frontiers, new media, new formats... as we upload the campaign report and close the blog, we do so, incredulously.

This last post begins with many acknowledgments: to team-members, to partners, to donors and to resource people, for starters.

Namitha Joseph was a patient and accessible Campaign Coordinator, making endless rounds of persuasive calls and calls to remind people of promises made. Given the scheduling challenges November-December pose for working with colleges, she gets complete credit for building bridges for Prajnya across Chennai's colleges. We will thank her and benefit from her hard work for a few years at least!

Subhashini Selvanathan's work on this campaign went well beyond her usual administrative and accounting responsibilities. She went out to do invitations, checked out venues and was an active member of the programme planning team this year. Truly, this campaign, like most of Prajnya's activities, would not have been possible without her hard work and systematic efforts.

Anupama Srinivasan, as Programme Director of the Gender Violence Research and Information Taskforce at Prajnya, has brought depth to campaign programming through her year-round engagement with gender violence research. The idea of the Women's Safety Audit was introduced by her into the campaign, and she designed and led the Audit along with local volunteers as well as organized the Public Forum where the findings of the Audit were shared.

Prajnya team members provided excellent moral and backstage support as usual: Nandhini and Sweta created a powerpoint for us to use and handled a whole lot of writing and editing work; Nirupa has been the keeper of our mailing lists for over a year and so word gets out on time about our activities and programmes; Uma wrote the substantive sections of the desk resource for television teams and Kavitha Muralidharan translated the text into Tamil overnight; Priya conceptualised and put together 'Who's your SHero?', our first campaign programme for school children; Sowmya conceptualised and put together 'AIKYA' the campaign concert; Sruthi put together the YouTube Channel; Vasughi updated the wiki... and if I have forgotten anyone, it's because my memory is imperfect, not that your work is unimportant.

I want to mention Hemant Shivakumar here. He started out by volunteering but his responsible and multi-dimensional engagement with campaign programmes meant that he finished as part of the team. Hemant and his friends came to help set things up at the kacheri and the poetry reading. Hemant then took charge of live-blogging at Laddies Night, the public forum and the seminar on ICT and gender violence. He was also rapporteur at Intersect, the consultative dialogue. Hemant and his friend also walked in women's stilletoes at Laddies Night, to show support for the fight against gender violence.

The idea for Laddies Night came from Koushik Udayashankar, and it took the campaign out to people who may or may not have been able or comfortable to attend our other programmes. Laddies Night also expanded our community to include the Zara and Koblerr teams.

In fact, partners are always the good news at the end of the campaign. Each year, we remember how many people walk with us on this journey. Some have been with us from the beginning, and some have joined us this year. PCVC, Queen Mary's College, Marappachi Trust, AVTAR_I-WIN, Tulir, Omayal Achi College of Nursing and Full Circle @Chamiers have worked with us again this year. Chennai Police, Madras School of Social Work and Empowering Women in IT are some of our wonderful new partners.

The resource people who made the campaign possible: Sudha Raja, Vidya Kalyanaraman, Dr. Srilata K., Salma, Kutti Revathi, Sharanya Manivannan, Sharadha Shankar, Dr. Rathi Jafer, Amukta Mahapatra, VR Devika, Dr. Nirmala Prasad, Kavitha Selvaraj, Katheeja Talha, Ranjitha Gunasekaran, Indhu Subramaniam, Usha BN, Anita Gurumurthy, Chloe Zollmann, Dr. Rama Subramaniam, Jamuna Swamy, Dr. Sudhakar and all the wonderful officers from Chennai Police that we worked with, especially: Addl. Commissioner Shakeel Akhter, DCP Kilpauk S. Lakshmi and DCP Adyar Dr. Sarangan. This is your campaign; you make it happen.

And finally, to all our donors and those who supported us by providing us space or other help, a big thank you: you verily are the wind beneath our wings!

We close the campaign season and the campaign blog now, and will see you next in 2012.

That's right, 2012: After three years of organizing the Prajnya 16 Days Campaign, we want to take a year off--a campaign sabbatical--to take stock, to re-group and consolidate our resource base and to build a year-round agenda of research and programmes in which the campaign can be embedded. We will be back in September 2012 with a renewed edition of this blog, and in November 2012 with our fourth campaign. But the campaign continues in our work and in our hearts. And we count on your being with us through this coming period.

Thank you again!

Prajnya's first Women's Safety Audit

2010-12-24T18:21:00.007+05:30

At a workshop organised by Jagori earlier this year, several organisations from across India learnt about Jagori's work on women's safety in public spaces in Delhi. A key objective of this workshop, which I attended, was to demonstrate the usefulness of the safety audit tool as a way to measure women's safety. Since then, we've been keen to pilot this in Chennai and decided to do so as part of this year's campaign.

Very simply, this is how a women's safety audit works:

You choose an area - either residential or a public space like a market or a mall or even a main road. A team of 5-6 members (primarily residents of that area) walk the area, looking to identify various factors that make it either safe or unsafe for women. This could include street lights, the presence/absence of hawkers/shops (who might respond if a woman needs help), pavements, empty lots with men hanging about, etc etc. In addition, the team also plots the area on a map, takes photos, videos and does spot interviews with people.

Moreover, one of the major objectives is to find ways to integrate issues of women's safety and sexual harassment into urban planning. This is why the walk actually looks at several aspects of urban infrastructure which are common to men and women - roads, lights, police support, etc etc. The idea is that if a city is safe for women, it is safe for everyone else too (including say, the disabled, for example). Equally, we believe that it is important to expand the idea of safety as something more than a law and order issue to include all these other factors.

We decided to audit a select area in Besant Nagar as a first step, for two reasons: the combination of a popular public space (the beach) and a residential area was particularly interesting and secondly, we identified an enthusiastic group, thanks to the enthusiastic involvement of Sharadha Shankar, a local resident of the area. Over the next few weeks, we identified the specific area we wanted to audit, revised the checklist shared by Jagori and explained the process to the team.

A report based on the preliminary findings is pasted below. Prajnya will now share the findings with relevant authorities and we also hope to expand the audit to other parts of the city.

Women’s Safety Audit, Besant Nagar

Preliminary Report

Who we are: A group of local residents living in the Besant Nagar area, along with a small team from Prajnya.

What we did: Undertook and carried out a women’s safety audit in select areas of Besant Nagar on Monday, 29 November 2010.

Why we did this: The safety audit is a tool used in several cities around the world to understand whether a particular area is safe for women. The audit helps local residents assess their own areas from the point of view of infrastructure, looking at roads and streets, lights, availability of public toilets, etc. The audit is based on the premise that a city safe for women is safe for everyone.

This area was chosen for a specific reason: it is a residential area but with a well-used and busy public place (the beach).

The area we covered: 5th Avenue, 32^nd, 33^rd and 34^th Cross Street, Besant Nagar.

What we found:

While the area is generally considered safe during the day, several of the inner streets are considered unsafe after dark, especially 32^nd Cross Street.
Lighting is a major concern:

The lights only come on at around 6pm, by which time it is already dark.
The only source of light, before the street lights come on, is from shops, who switch on their lights between 5.30pm and 5:45pm.
Several of the existing street lights do not function.
The light posts are so high up that they are hidden by the trees. Therefore the light is very dim.

There have been a few incidents of chain snatching, all targeting women, in recent months. These have taken place both at night and during the day.
Several of the footpaths are not accessible for the disabled or those with prams.
There is a run-down Electricity Board building behind the Metro Water complex. The windows are broken and residents report seeing men gather there, drinking and using the place as a toilet.
On the three inner lanes, despite several houses, there are few people on the road.
A section of the playground on 34^th Cross Street is cordoned off with tall aluminium sheets. There is virtually no lighting here, and this is a definite unsafe area.

What we recommend (based on our preliminary findings):

In ‘winter’ months, the lights need to come on earlier, at 5:30pm at least.
The existing street lights need to be fixed and new ones added on some of the inner lanes.
The height of the light posts could be lowered, so that they offer better light and are not blocked by the trees.
Something is done about the Electricity Board building: the windows are re-fixed, the building cordoned off or security appointed.

This audit was organised as part of the 2010 Prajnya 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence.

Logging into (In)Security: ICTs and Gender Violence

2010-12-24T18:17:00.003+05:30

Official Press Release

Chennai, 10 December: With the increased use of Information, Communications and Technology (ICT), there is increased potential for the abuse of ICT, with often humiliating and tragic consequences for women users. This was discussed at Logging into (In)Security, a seminar on ICT and Gender Violence, organised by Prajnya as part of the 2010 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence, in partnership with Empowering women in IT (eWIT).

“Everyone is impacted by ICT, whether as users or non-users. We often assume that access to the ICTs automatically means inclusion and therefore empowerment. But there are digital dangers, with implications for the security of women”, said Ms. Chloe Zollman of Bangalore-based IT for Change.

Dr Rama Subramaniam, criminologist and CEO of Valiant Technologies pointed out that the majority of victims online are not aware that they had been victimized. “It is not possible for any individual to monitor every single website every day to see if his/her photo has been misused. By the time s/he discovers it by chance, the damage has been done”, he said.

Discussing the challenges that law enforcement officials commonly face, Dr. Sudhakar IPS, Asst. Commissioner, Cyber Crimes Cell, Chennai Police, reiterated the urgent need for a global law. “We are trying to address a problem that has an international dimension with a local law. We need something that will help us gather any required information from various intermediaries”, he said. He cited several examples of online abuse directed at women, especially after the breakup of a relationship or a marriage.

Ms. Jamuna Swamy, Head, Information Security, Hexaware Technologies, drew attention to the importance of both prevention and deterrence, as methods to anticipate and address online violence. All the speakers pointed out that technology itself can be used to fight back against exploitation. “It is possible to challenge violence and power in constructive ways, using digital technology to create safe spaces where people can meet, in a non-threatening way. But for this, we have to teach others to use the tools”, emphasised Ms. Zollman.

“A programme of this type is hugely beneficial to women in the IT and ITES industries, who are perhaps the largest users of ICT and therefore most vulnerable to its abuse”, pointed out Ms. Vijayalakshmi Rao, President, eWIT. “For Prajnya, the real challenge is to create the awareness that enables victims to identify what they experience as violence, and as something that is not their fault, whether in the real world or cyberspace”, said Dr. Swarna Rajagopalan, Managing Trustee, Prajnya.

The seminar, the first in partnership between eWIT and Prajnya, was chaired by Kalyani Narayanan, Vice President - eWIT and attended by a cross-section of IT professionals, students and other concerned citizens.

Intersect: Summary of discussions

2010-12-24T18:15:00.001+05:30

INTERSECT: A CONSULTATIVE DIALOGUE

December 7, 2010

Summary

College students in the city continue to face sexual harassment on the street and while using public transport. This was discussed at Intersect, a consultative dialogue between students and the Chennai Police, facilitated by Prajnya as part of the 2010 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence.

The focus of the discussion was on safety in public spaces, looking primarily at issues of sexual harassment. Each college was represented by two students, majority of whom were office bearers or student union members. Students were given an opportunity to briefly present their key concerns:

Anna University identified misbehaviour by men in buses, and frequent phone calls from strangers as key issues. They also identified their college bus stop as not very safe, particularly in evenings.
Students of Ethiraj College identified Crescent Avenue as well as a tea shop outside the college where men gathered frequently to smoke and pass comments as their main problems.
Student representatives from Hindustan College identified the urgent need for more sustained, direct contact between the student council and the police.
For students of Madras Christian College, harassment on the trains, especially in the general compartments, was a real concern; given the college’s location in Tambaram, several students travel daily by train.
The presentation by Meenakshi College students reiterated all these issues.
Students of Queen Mary’s College described their helplessness when strangers took photos or videos of them on their cell phones; students also faced issues with drunk men loitering around bus stands and sexual harassment on buses.
Students from Women’s Christian College observed that girls who travel to college on bikes are often followed by groups of men or boys and harassed.

In their turn, the police officers responded to these observations by the students, describing several potential solutions:

Inspector Ariyamala described the 1091 helpline number, pointing out that it functioned as a 24 hour helpline for women in distress.
Inspector Muniandi advised the students to always note down the IMEI number of their cell phones; this information can be used in the event of any cell phone-related crimes.
Inspector Jawahar pointed out that most eve-teasers were students themselves and for that reason, prosecution is near impossible. “Families also believe that the girl’s future will also be spoilt if she is associated with a court case and they hesitate to come forward. If one college registers a case and we are able to take it forward, then this will discourage other mischief mongers”, he said.
Describing several cases, Inspector Subburaj noted that technology has been used to solve crimes.
Assistant Commissioner Ashokkumar explained the police system in Tamil Nadu to the students, describing the various roles and responsibilities. He urged students to always be aware of which jurisdiction they came under.

JC Seshasayee joined the discussion at this stage, and encouraged the student representatives to act as ambassadors and share their knowledge with other students. He asked them to contact the SMS helpline, 9500099100 in case they witnessed any emergencies but were hesitant to get involved.

Students from MCC observed that in colleges with students from several different cultural backgrounds, simple communication was often misunderstood as eve teasing. Where can one draw the boundaries of what constitutes eve teasing? The JC responded that it is up to the girl to decide whether a particular instance was eve teasing or not. “Normally, girls don’t give complaints just like that, she also has to spend her time in a station and forego many things”, he said. It was noted that harassment is what the person perceives and not necessarily what the perpetrator intends.

Students raised several questions; for instance, what could they do if they were harassed on the bus, and the harasser got off at the next stop. The JC assured them that the police would take into account what witnesses had to say and register a complaint based on that. Similarly, he advised that if a girl is followed by a group of boys in a desolate area with no one around, then it is best to use her cell phone to speak to her family, or even call 100 in case of an emergency. He also encouraged students to try and sort out issues at local and community levels in many cases.

Finally, students were unanimous that visits by women police officers would not only help students understand police procedures better but also motivate them to register complaints.

Intersect: Dialogue between Chennai Police and student representatives

2010-12-24T17:57:00.003+05:30

The official press release:

College students in the city continue to face sexual harassment on the street and while using public transport. This was discussed today at Intersect, a consultative dialogue between students and the Chennai Police, facilitated by Prajnya as part of the 2010 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence.

Invitations were sent to over 30 colleges in the city and nine responded positively, submitting a brief that summarized the specific concerns of students in their college.

Students revealed through their responses that they faced harassment particularly in buses, and around bus stands, irrespective of the college location. In addition, an emerging problem is that of SMS and cyber stalking.

The students representatives also observed that the majority of those harassed did not complain or ask for help, mainly because people would think they were making a fuss for no good reason. They welcomed the opportunity to interact directly with the police, suggesting that women police officer visit colleges more frequently and organise meetings and workshops.

Intersect was held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Outdoor Stadium meeting room and attended by representatives from Prajnya as well as several police officers including Joint Commissioner Chennai North Mr. Seshasayee, Deputy Commissioner Kilpauk Ms. S. Lakshmi, Asst Commissioner Vepery Mr. Ashokkumar, Inspector Kilpauk Police Station Subbaraj, Inspector Vepery Police Station Jawahar, Inspector Indian Coach Factory Police Station Muniandi and All-Women's Police Station, Kilpauk Inspector, Aryamala.

Logging Into (In)Security: Photos

2010-12-21T22:13:00.001+05:30

We wanted to organise a campaign programme on cybercrimes and gender violence for the longest time but somehow it just hadn't worked out. Then suddenly, at a scarily late date in the campaign planning season, things began to fall into place. We tracked down speakers we really wanted. We chanced upon amazing partners (eWIT). And before you knew it, a very substantial conversation was happening (which Hemant has live-blogged here, as you know).

Workplace Sexual Harassment: A Training of Trainers, Dec 8-9, 2010

2010-12-21T21:04:00.000+05:30

For the second year in a row, we invited Indhu and Usha from Hengasara Hakkina Sangha to lead a training workshop on gender sensitization and workplace sexual harassment. AVTAR I-WIN partnered with us again. Participants were HR professionals from firms mostly based in Chennai, although this year we had one participant who came down from Pune especially to attend the workshop.

The Intersect Experience: Article by Anupama N., Ethiraj College

2010-12-21T20:33:00.000+05:30

One of the participants in Intersect, the consultative dialogue we organised for students and Chennai Police, wrote this article about her experience:

Anupama N., For inclusive public spaces, Nxg, The Hindu, December 15, 2010.

What are the problems that women face in public places and what can we do about it? Students and police officials got together to dicuss the issue and arrive at solutions to make the city a safe place for all.

Intersect Press Release and Photos

2010-12-20T18:25:00.000+05:30

Press Release:

Chennai, 7 December: College students in the city continue to face sexual harassment on the street and while using public transport. This was discussed today at Intersect, a consultative dialogue between students and the Chennai Police, facilitated by Prajnya as part of the 2010 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence.

Invitations were sent to over 30 colleges in the city and nine responded positively, submitting a brief that summarized the specific concerns of students in their college.

Public Forum Album: Glimpses

2010-12-20T18:06:00.000+05:30

A Seminar on ICT and Gender Violence

2010-12-10T15:00:00.000+05:30

A seminar on ICT and Gender Violence

"Is Chennai Safe for Women?" - A Public Forum

2010-12-05T16:22:00.002+05:30

Is Chennai Safe for Women?

Know The Law - Sexual harassment at workplace :

2010-12-05T14:03:00.003+05:30

As women try to fight economic disparity with men, a new form of crime emerges- sexual harassment at work place. Each incident of sexual harassment is also a violation of human rights, gender equality - fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution.

Gender equality includes protection from sexual harassment and right to
work with dignity, which is a universally recognised basic human right. The common
minimum requirement of this right has received global acceptance. The International
Conventions and norms are, therefore, of great significance in the formulation of the
guidelines to achieve this purpose.- Vishaka V State of Rajasthan . The judgement also set out guidelines which has till date been the norms for tackling sexual harassment at workplace.

The guidelines and norms prescribed herein area as under :-

Having regard to the definition of .human rights. in S. 2 (d) of the Protection
of Human Rights Act, 1993,
Taking note of the fact that the present civil and penal laws in India do not
adequately provide for specific protection of women from sexual harassment in work
places and that enactment of such legislation will take considerable time.
It is necessary and expedient form employers in work places as well as other
responsible persons or institutions to observe certain guidelines to ensure the
prevention of sexual harassment of women :

1. Duty of the Employer or other responsible persons in work places and
other institutions :
It shall be the duty of the employer or other responsible persons in work places
or other institutions to prevent or deter the commission of acts of sexual harassment
and to provide the procedures for the resolution, settlement or prosecution of acts of sexual harassment by taking all steps required.

2. Definition :
For this purpose,sexual harassment includes such unwelcome sexually
determined behaviour (Whether directly or by implication) as :
a) Physical contact and advances;
b) a demand or request for sexual favours;
c) sexually coloured remarks;
d) showing pornography;
e) any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non - verbal conduct of sexual
nature.
.
3. Preventive Step :
All employers or persons in charge of work place whether in the public or
private sector should take appropriate steps to prevent sexual harassment. Without
prejudice to the generality of this obligation they should take the following steps:
(a) Express prohibition of sexual harassment as defined above at the work
place should be notified, published and circulated in appropriate ways.
(b) The Rules/Regulations of Government and Public Sector bodies relating
to conduct and discipline should include rules/regulations prohibiting sexual harassment and provide for appropriate penalties in such rules against the offender.
(c) As regards private employers steps should be taken to include the
aforesaid prohibitions in the standing orders under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946.
(d) Appropriate work conditions should be provided in respect of work, leisure,
health and hygiene to further ensure that there is no hostile environment towards
women at work places and no employee woman should have reasonable grounds to
believe that she is disadvantaged in connection with her employment.

4. Criminal Proceedings :
Where such conduct amounts to a specific offence under the Indian Penal Code
or under any other law, the employer shall initiate appropriate action in accordance
with law by making a complaint with the appropriate authority.
In particular, it should ensure that victims, or witnesses are not victimized or
discriminated against while dealing with complaints of sexual harassment. The victims
of sexual harassment should have the option to seek transfer of the perpetrator or
their own transfer.

5. Disciplinary Action :
Where such conduct amounts to misconduct in employment as defined by the
relevant service rules, appropriate disciplinary action should be initiated by the
employer in accordance with those rules.

6. Complaint Mechanism :
Whether or not such conduct constitutions an offence under law or a breach of
the service rules, an appropriate complaint mechanism should be created in the
employer’s organization for redress of the complaint made by the victim. Such
complaint mechanism should ensure time bound treatment of complaints.

7. Complaints Committee :
The complaint mechanism, referred to in (6) above, should be adequate to
provide, where necessary, Complaints Committee, a special counsellor or other support
service, including the maintenance of confidentiality. The Complaints Committee should be heated by a woman and not less than half of its member should be women. Further, to prevent the possibility of any undue pressure or influence from senior levels, such Complaints Committee should involve a third party, either NGO or other body who is familiar with the issue of sexual harassment.The Complaints Committee must make an annual report to the Government department concerned of the complaints and action taken by them.

8. Workers. Initiative :
Employees should be allowed to raise issues sexual harassment at workers.
meeting and in other appropriate forum and it should be affirmatively discussed in
Employer - Employee Meetings.

9. Awareness :
Awareness of the rights of female employees in this regard should be created
in particular by prominently notifying the guidelines ( and appropriate legislation when enacted on the subject ) in a suitable manner.

10. Third Party Harassment :
Where sexual harassment occurs as a result of an act or omission by any third
party or outsider, the employer and person in charge will take all steps necessary and reasonable to assist the affected person in terms of support and preventive action.

11. The Central / State Governments are requested to consider adopting
suitable measures including legislation to ensure that the guidelines laid down by this order are also observed by the employers in Private Sector.

12. These guidelines will not prejudice any rights available under the
Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.

Reflections on Not Silence, but Verse

2010-12-03T16:05:00.003+05:30

Belatedly, posting reflections by Uma Vangal on Not Silence, But Verse: a reading of poetry, held last Saturday at Full Circle.

The day? Saturday 27^th, November. the time: 630 pm The venue? Full Circle book shop.The event? Not silence, but verse, a poetry reading by four women poets. The occasion? Prajnya’s 16 day campaign against gender violence.

Full circle was full and that’s just the beginning. As the evening progressed, the full house was spell bound as they heard Kutti Revathi, Sharanya Manivannan, Salma and Srilata, their voices rising and falling with the emotions that echoed some universal experiences of women.

Vazhvin soonyangal and nammai piditha pisugal sharply brought out the burdens women carry around them in physical and intellectual terms and the fact that women are pilloried for their choices and actions even in their use of words. The ‘politics of the word’ demonstrated this with clarity as Kutti Revathi brought life to the words.

Sharnaya Manivannan, poet and columnist recited her sensuous and visually rich poems on abusive relationships, prejudices, the voids and women's deepest darkest desires and the pride of female lineage. The recurring motifs of fire and astronomical symbolism abound in her writing and reading.

“Men need onlt and paper to pen their poems; we women require courage, determination and fortitude to express ourselves”. When Salma began her recital with these words, the audience would have understood the enormous task these women have taken upon themselves. Salma went on to read thought-provoking poems on female identity, communal identity, menopause, inadequacy of one’s body as one’s identity and the courage displayed by women in extreme situations especially “The contract” that showed woman need to have some semblance of control and dominion over the men and remain “a placid lake” amidst all the turmoil, abuse and negativity they faces.

Srilata, poet, winner of several literary prizes and fellowships and professor at the humanities department of IIT, Madras began her reading with “not reaching out” on the casual encounters that never fructify in our lives, and on war victims evoking the horror faced by women in war and conflicts zones and the free flow of ideas one experiences. Finally, a bio note on the woman from Madras that resonated with references to a typical Madras upbringing and its contentment against all odds.

The conversation that followed the verse centred on the anger, anguish, suffering, courage, challenges and universality of themes in women’s literary writing and the need to also look into ways of translating the collective and personal experiences of women from the regional to the global language. Many comments, questions and suggestions were made along with the observation that opposition to feminist writing stemmed from both within and without.
As for those who oppose feminist writing and counter it with abuse and vehement criticism, Anita Ratnam from the audience quoted from Paulo Coelho

“Those who are jealous are confused admirers who cannot understand why we are popular”

Know the Law-Dowry and the Indian legal system

2010-12-03T15:26:00.002+05:30

According to the Webster,s New Dictionary, dowry means “the money, goods or estate which a woman brings to her husband in marriage, the portion given with the wife”.

Section 2. Definition of `dowry’.-In this act, `dowry’ means any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly-

(a) by one party to a marriage to the other party to the marriage; or
(b) by the parents of either party to a marriage or by any other person, to either party to the marriage or to any other person;
at or before or any time after the marriage in connection with the marriage of said parties but does not include dower or mahr in the case of persons to whom the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) applies.
Explanation II.-The expression `valuable security’ has the same meaning as in Sec. 30 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860).

Reason
For giving or taking dowry ----- 5 years, fine or amount of dowry whichever is more

For demanding dowry ------ 6 months extending to 2 years and fine

The Supreme Court in S.Gopal Reddy V State of A.P held that a demand made before marriage also amounts to an offence under Section 4 of the Act.

Any agreement pertaining to dowry is void and burden of proof is always on the person accused of demanding or taking dowry. Dowry prohibition officers are appointed under Section 8 of the Act. Two offences namely dowry death and cruelty has been introduced in the IPC to deal with harassment pertaining to dowry.

304B. Dowry death.- IPC
(1) Where the death of a woman is caused by any burns or bodily injury or occurs otherwise than under normal circumstances within seven years of her marriage and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or any relative of her husband for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry, such death shall be called "dowry death" and such husband or relative shall be deemed to have caused her death.

Explanation:-For the purpose of this sub-section, "dowry" shall have the same meaning as in section 2 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 ( 28 of 1961).

(2) Whoever commits dowry death shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years but which may extend to imprisonment for life.]

498A. Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty.

Whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.

Explanation-For the purpose of this section, "cruelty" means-
(a) Any willful conduct which is of such a nature as is likely to drive the woman to commit suicide or to cause grave injury or danger to life, limb or health whether mental or physical) of the woman; or

(b) Harassment of the woman where such harassment is with a view to coercing her or any person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security or is on account of failure by her or any person related to her meet such demand.]

The Indian Evidence Act and Dowry:

113B. Presumption as to dowry death - When the question is whether a person has committed the dowry death of a women and it is shown that soon before her death such woman had been subjected by such person to cruelty or harassment for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry; the court shall presume that such person had caused the dowry death.

Explanation - For the purposes of this section, "dowry death" shall have the same meaning as in section 304B of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860).

Laddies Night, in images

2010-12-02T18:57:00.000+05:30

Welcome to Laddies Night at Zara Tapas Bar, shoes courtesy Koblerr, gift vouchers donated by Indian Terrain!

Laddies Night: Live Blogging from Zaras@RK Salai, Chennai

2010-12-01T19:59:00.045+05:30

Hemant, our blogger!
(added by Swarna Rajagopalan)

22:40 That's it people. Goodnight, and thanks for rising up to say NO to gender violence.I am Hemant, for Prajnya, signing off. See you at the public forum on Sunday. And feedback and suggestions on the blog to hemant92@gmail.com

22:30 We couldn' t have wished for anything better. A big thanks to Zaras, Indian Terrain, Kobbler, and Anupama! Its been a great, great night.

22:29 That's it. Round 3's over. And thanks to everyone who put this together, and a big thanks to the men who walked in stilletos. Vivek, Anand, and Soman take the honors for the night.

22:29 Last round on. Arasu leading the charge again. Here comes the boogie! Three cheers, Prajnya, as men salsa their way round the Zara's ramp to some great music. The DJ's been fantabulous all night, and especially so when the men in stilettos have scorched the ramp. As they tread, Koushik buzzes them up. Zara seems the place to be on this night. It's all happening folks!

22:20 Sweta and Nandhini leave, and we wave them good bye. I have been pestering them to come up with some lines, and they finally drop it: "The fun goes on". True, and thanks gals.

22:17 Round 3. Last chance to be heard, last chance to be walking tall. Get ready folks, Rajni isthyle!

22:15 For people who want to help cases of Gender Violence, Prajnya has a listing of helplines for women in distress in Chennai. Access it@ www.prajnya.in/chennaihelplines.htm

22:12 SWR has shot me.... on camera. What were you thinking? A double barrel shotgun?

22:00 Anupama waltzes in to tell me something that she calls the 'line of the evening'.

Here goes the conversation:

Anupama: Sir, Would you walk in the stillettos?

Man X: I cannot, because I am not used to the pain. You WOMEN are used to the pain, and therefore you can walk.

I am calling that chauvinism, you?

22:00 Cases of cruelty by husband and relatives is recorded every nine minutes. Indian, that. 6,000 dowry related deaths and still counting. Rapes occur every 30 minutes. 75% of rapists are known to their victims. It is a fast growing time in India. So much for progress and independence.

21:48 Its fantastic to see people putting the hands up against gender violence, especially som when you are the campaign co-ordinator of Prajnya. Giant leaps in 7 days of the campaign. Nights at Zara aren't full of gyaan, people. So go home enlightened.

21:41 That's 90 minutes done. A half time report. 27 men walked in stilettos, that's one small step for the number, but one giant leap for Prajnya. More people saying NO to gender violence. It's been a fun-filled eventful half, and we find people hungry and the co-ordinators of Prajnya smiling.

21:40 "I feel like cinderella, for once in glass shoes", remarks another.

21:36 "Women cannot challenge men anymore that men hadn't been walking in women's shoes" glees a Round 2 participant. I hope his wife isn't sitting beside him.

21:35 Zaras is swinging to the men in stillettos. Yippeee!

21:34 The participants are having a great time, dancing, swirling, and posing on the ramp. Lovely, that!

21:33 Round 2 starts. Hoo.......!!!!!!

21:32 Food for Thought, round 2. 85% of women who have experienced sexual violence never tell anyone about it.

21: 30 We'll be hitting off Round 2 in a few minutes. Cometh the hour, cometh the stillettos.

21: 28 Results of Round 1: Jeffrey takes the honours; takes home a gift voucher from Indian Terrain. He's strutted around the place with energy. And so we rise.

21:27 Can you give us some examples of gender-based violence that you know? email me at hemant92@gmail.com and Ill put it up here.

21: 25 Not much of men throwing their hands up. Be a sport, men.

21: 14 Ah. The net connection seems more tidy now. The Prajnya team is at the dinner tables, a few volunteers pulling people in to try out the shoes.

21:12 We find Anupama again. "Gender based violence is not purely women-centered ,or a mere women issue. Its much more than that, and men have to understand that. "

21:10 Anupama of Prajnya has been busy pepping up volunteers. Go, Prajnya, go!

20:58 "Prajnya's public events should be webcast", comments Koushik of Indian Terrain. We'll add that to the suggestion list, dear!

20:56 For some weird reason, the net connection isn't hitting full throttle. Ah, here come in more men, and with colorful stilletos.

20: 50 15 men scorched Zaras ramp on women's shoes! some show that!

20:44 Sweta and Nandhini: "having fun", they are volunteers from Prajnya, having a good time watching men, be women!

20:42 Arasu, the Zaras man, inaugurates Laddies Night and leads the men of Round 1 in walking in stilletos.

I just walked in the shoes, painful! No pain , no gain! Well, kudos to the womenfolk who do this day in and day out.

20:36 Jumping into Hemant's stream... the men in stilletos are marching, where are you??? SWR

20:35 Here we go, we are commencing round 1, whatever that's meant to be! Not the drinks, though!

20:27 We have men complain that ladies shoes are tight(that includes me too), and they are not comfortable. If then societal rules are restrictive of women in a similar fashion, then where can women find comfort?" opines Swarna, head of Prajnya.

20:26 Some basics :Gender refers to a socially constructed roles, behaviors, attributes, adn activities that a society considers appropriate for men and women. However, women are largely discriminated owing to gender. Thus, against gender violence is a campaign that targets this, in particular, violence against women.

20:24 Folks, mail me your suggestions and feed back on this liveblog to hemant92@gmail.com

20:20 Zaras is packed and we are trying to get in pics of guys with ladies stillettos on this blog. Hold on for a while!

20:11 Until I finish uploading the picture, there are a few of us, say 4, who have got into ladies shoes. I am feeling tall :)

20:10 Well, I managed to get into Zaras finally wearing, ahem, ladies footwear! Wow!

20:05 Facts for thought! Gender-based violence is a major human rights problem around the world. Women between the age of 15-44; violence is a major cause of death and disability. Earlier, a study by World Bank on risk factors for women rated domestic violence against women and rape higher than accidents, malaria, and other causes.

20:01 This is Hemant, am live-blogging tonights event for the benefit of, well, Prajnya!

20:00 A rainy evening, but that's not gonna dampen my 'spirit'. Am outside with no shoes. Nevertheless, Welcome to the Laddies Night at Zara's - The Tapas Bar. Hoping to see many of you here in support of the campaign against Gender Violence, and well, for a free drink too!

Know the Law - Prostitution, trafficking and the Indian woman:

2010-12-01T10:58:00.004+05:30

“Women found in flesh trade, should be viewed more as victims of adverse socio-economic circumstances rather than offenders in our society. The commercial exploitation of sex may be regarded as a crime but those trapped in custom oriented prostitution and gender oriented prostitution should be viewed as victims of gender oriented vulnerability.” Goes the Supreme Court in Gaurav Jain V Union of Indian.

The constitution under Article 23 mandates prohibition of trafficking and all forms of exploitation. India being a signatory to the international Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and Exploitation, 1950 passed a Central law to implement the provisions of the convention. In 1956 the Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act known as SITA, was passed and after amendments it is now known as Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.

Section 2:

Definitions.—In this Act. unless the context otherwise requires—
(a) “brothel“ includes any house, room, conveyance or place, or any portion of any house, room, conveyance or place, which is used for purposes of sexual exploitation or abuse for the gain of another person or for the mutual gain of two or more prostitutes;

(aa) “child“ means a person who has not completed the age of eighteen years;

(b) “corrective institution“ means an institution, by whatever name called (being an institution established or licensed as such under Section 21), in which persons, who are in need of correction, may be detained under this Act, and includes a shelter where under trials may be kept in pursuance of this Act;

(f) “prostitution“ means the sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes or for consideration in money or in any other kind, and the expression “prostitute” shall be construed accordingly;

(g) “protective home“ means an institution, by whatever name called (being an institution established or licensed as such under Section 21), in which persons who are in need of care and protection, may be kept under this Act and where appropriate technically qualified persons, equipments and other facilities have been provided but does not include,—

(i) a shelter where under trials may be kept in pursuance of this Act, or
(ii) a corrective institution;

(h) “public place“ means any place intended for use by, or accessible to, the public and includes any public conveyance;
(i) “special police officer” means a police officer appointed by or on behalf of the State Government to be in charge of police duties within a specified area for the purpose of this Act;

(j) “trafficking police officer“ means a police officer appointed by the Central Government under subsection

Punishment is also prescribed for seduction, detaining a person in a place where prostitution is carried on, for keeping a brothel and living on the earnings of prostitution. Special police officers can even arrest without warrants if it so demands. More often these powers bestowed on officers and biased view on prostitution leads to torture of the people involved in this profession.

GRITPrajnya Channel: A New Resource

2010-11-30T11:28:00.000+05:30

Prajnya is primarily a research organization, with a commitment to public education (making information accessible to people) and networking (bringing together and working with others).

On the sixth day of the 2010 Prajnya 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence, we are particularly delighted to bring you something that allows to fulfill all our mandates: A new single point compilation of audio-visual resources on gender violence that are available in the public domain, the new GRITPrajnya YouTube Channel.

We hope this will cut short search time before each new project, each new training programme. And we invite you to point us to resources we might include.

Email your suggestions to: media.prajnya@gmail.com

A very special photo

2010-11-30T00:07:00.000+05:30

The three Campaign Coordinators at Elliots Beach, just before the Safety Audit exercise began.
Left to right: Anupama Srinivasan (2009), Nirupama Sarathy (2008) and Namitha Joseph (2010).

Another friend's blog: Women's Resilience, The Girl Effect blog

2010-11-29T11:01:00.000+05:30

R.Lalita who occasionally posts on The PSW Weblog has written about our new campaign blog, "What's in a Game?". Take a look at her post here.

Know the Law - Rape and the Legal Perspective

2010-11-29T10:34:00.002+05:30

Rape is an act of violence expressed through sexual means. In so far as the law is concerned rape is the slightest degree of penetration by the male sex organ of the female sex organ which is sufficient to constitute intercourse without anything more occurring. Sections 375 and 376 A to D of the Indian Penal Code deals with rape.
375. Rape.

A man is said to commit "rape" who, except in the case hereinafter excepted, has sexual intercourse with a woman under circumstances falling under any of the six following descriptions: -

First: - Against her will.

Secondly: -without her consent.

Thirdly: - With her consent, when her consent has been obtained by putting her or any person in whom she is interested in fear of death or of hurt.

Fourthly: -With her consent, when the man knows that he is not her husband, and that her consent is given because she believes that he is another man to whom she is or believes herself to be lawfully married.

Fifthly: - With her consent, when, at the time of giving such consent, by reason of unsoundness of mind or intoxication or the administration by him personally or through another of any stupefying or unwholesome substance, she is unable to understand the nature and consequences of that to which she gives consent.

Sixthly: - With or without her consent, when she is under sixteen years of age.

Explanation: - Penetration is sufficient to constitute the sexual intercourse necessary to the offence of rape.

Exception: -Sexual intercourse by a man with his wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape].

Section 376. Punishment for rape

(1) Whoever, except in the cases provided for by sub-section (2), commits rape shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than seven years but which may be for life or for a term which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to fine unless the woman raped is his own wife and is not under twelve years of age, in which cases, he shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years or with fine or with both:

Provided that the court may, for adequate and special reasons to be mentioned in the judgment, impose a sentence of imprisonment for a term of less than seven years.

(1) Whoever: -
(a) Being a police officer commits rape-
(i) Within the limits of the police station to which he is appointed; or

(ii) In the premises of any station house whether or not situated in the police station to which he is appointed; or

(iii) On a woman is his custody or in the custody of a police officer subordinate to him; or

(b) Being a public servant, takes advantage of his official position and commits rape on a woman is custody as such public servant or in the custody of a public servant subordinate to him; or

(c) Being on the management or on the staff of a jail, remand home or other place of custody established by or under any law for the time being in force or of a woman's or children's institution takes advantage of his official position and commits rape on any inmate of such jail, remand home, place or institution; or

(d) Being on the management or on the staff of a hospital, takes advantage of his official position and commits rape on a woman in that hospital; or

(e) Commits rape on a woman knowing her to be pregnant; or

(f) Commits rape when she is under twelve years of age; or

(g) Commits gang rape,

Shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than ten years but which may be for life and shall also be liable to fine:
Provided that the court may, for adequate and special reasons to be mentioned in the judgment, impose a sentence of imprisonment of either description for a term of less than ten years.

Explanation 1- Where a woman is raped by one or more in a group of persons acting in furtherance of their common intention, each of the persons shall be deemed to have committed gang rape within the meaning of this sub-section.

Explanation 2-"Women's or children's institution "means an institution, whether called an orphanage of a home for neglected women or children or a widows' home or by any other name, which is established and maintained for the reception and care of women or children.

Explanation: 3. - "Hospital" means the precincts of the hospital and includes the precincts of any institution for the reception and treatment of persons during convalescence or of persons requiring medical attention or rehabilitation].
In what was popularly known as “the Mathura trial” the honourable Supreme Court reversed the Bombay High Court’s decision and held the accused not guilty sighting 3 reasons. One that there was no injuries shown by the medical report and thus no stiff resistance was put up and the other being the girl was of easy virtue as she was open to premarital sex with her lover. But one has to ask does that mean she is ready to be violated by a police officer. Another judgement of the Supreme Court written in poor taste was in the case of Prem Chand Vs State of Haryana where the minimum sentence of 10 years was reduced to 5 years due to the “conduct of the girl”. The Supreme court seemed to be justifying the rapist’s conduct unintentionally.
There is some respite in many other well crafted judgements. One which particularly stands out is the words of Justice Krishna Iyer in Rafiq Vs State of UP “When rapists are revelling in their promiscuous pursuits and half of humankind-womankind- is protesting against its hapless lot, when no woman of honour will accuse another of rape since she sacrifices thereby what is dearest to her, we cannot cling to a fossil formula and insist on corroborative testimony, even if taken as a whole, the case spoken to by the victim strikes a judicial mind as probable. In this case, the testimony has commanded acceptance from two courts. When a woman is ravished what is inflicted is not merely physical injury, but 'the deep sense of some deathless shame".

Child abuse and the law:

Unfortunately there are no specific legislations tackling with this gruesome offence inspite of the mounting statistics that show that one in ten Indian children are victims of child abuse. In the case of Sakshi Vs Union of India it was emphasized that india is in dire need of legislations tackling child sexual abuse. Sections 375 and 376 of the IPC seem inconsistent with current affairs of the society.
There are very few sections under the Indian Penal Code that deal with child sexual abuse. Some terrible home truths are:
• The laws for women are extended to include children.
• The major weakness of these laws is that only penile penetration is considered a grave sexual offence. The crime is considered lesser when it is oral, or through penetration with an object.
• Although section 377, dealing with unnatural offences, prescribes seven to ten years of imprisonment, such cases can be tried in a magistrates court, which can impose maximum punishment of three years.
• If the abuse is repeated several times it affects children more severely, however as yet there is no law for repeated offenses against the one child.
According to a study conducted by the women and child welfare (WCD) ministry in 2007, more than half the children in the country have been victims of abuse. A shocking 53 per cent of an estimated 420 million children below 18 years have undergone some form of sexual victimisation. Since 2003, the WCD ministry has been drafting the Prevention of Offences Against Children Bill. The proposed legislation will cover all crimes against children, ranging from corporal punishment to sexual abuse and trafficking.

The AIKYA photo album!

2010-11-28T15:47:00.000+05:30

Prepping the hall


Volunteers from the Univ of Madras.

Getting on stage

Opening notes

SaReGaa children's choir

Snehidhi Singers

Accompanying the choral performances

Classical culmination

And the audience

Those who made it happen!

Prajnya team: L-R
Hemant Shivakumar,
Subhashini Selvanathan,
Namitha Joseph
(Campaign Coordinator)

Planning the next Campaign Concert?
S.Sowmya and Sudha Raja

AIKYA: The 2010 Campaign Concert, November 26, 2010

2010-11-28T14:56:00.001+05:30

(LONG post alert. No apology!)

AIKYA is a Sanskrit word for harmony, for oneness, for coming together and for merging. When Sowmya and I were hunting for a single word that could bring together the three components of the 2010 Campaign, we stopped at AIKYA. It was perfect.

Backstory

Sowmya entered the Prajnya community last year with so much enthusiasm and warmth that when we started planning this year's campaign and decided to make a tradition of devoting the first Friday of the campaign to a music concert, we called her without a second thought for help. Two important considerations went into the way AIKYA was conceptualised. First, that we should involve more and more people and get them to think about the issue of gender violence. Second, that we would rather initiate a process than stage an event that people can enjoy and forget about.

At last year's concert, Prajnya had recognized the work of four Chennai organizations working for women’s rights. We remembered that one of them actually organized women’s unions and ran programmes for adolescent girls. We approached Renuka Bala at the Centre for Women’s Development and Research to see if we could train a small group from this large membership to perform at the concert. CWDR was very enthusiastic, taking no time to say yes.

Enthused, Sowmya approached her friend, Sudha Raja. Sudha Raja is one of Chennai’s best-regarded Carnatic music gurus, but as she puts it, if one of her eyes is Carnatic music, the other is a devotion to promoting choral music.

Anyone who has ever sung at a satsang or in a schoolbus en route an excursion or in the school or church choir can attest that singing together with other people is a truly uplifting experience. Hearing one’s voice raised in melody and harmony with others underscores the feeling that you are not alone. You step out of the satsang or the choir, revived and ready to continue your personal journey.

Sudha Raja trained with and sang in M.B. Srinivas’ Madras Youth Choir and then took over as conductor when the eminent musician passed away 22 years ago. In addition to MYC and the newly formed SaReGaa children’s choir, she also trains community organizations and schools across the state. Sudha defied Chennai’s seasonal rains to trek across the city thrice to conduct training sessions for CWDR members.

And what rains! We keep lamenting how inappropriate the global campaign dates are for Chennai programming. Exams and holidays, monsoon and the music season all mitigate against robust public participation in the campaign. And this last year, it has rained like the equatorial regional climate described by geography texts of my childhood. Every week has had a couple of monsoon-like days. And those were usually days that CWDR and Sudha scheduled training sessions!

Anyway, we also asked Sudha if SaReGaa, the children’s choir she trains, could perform on the day. Founded in August 2010, the choir has over 50 children of ages 5-15 and they already have a full performance behind them. Sudha readily agreed.

The final component of the AIKYA programme was to be a Carnatic music kacheri. Chennai is the capital city of the Carnatic music world, and a gender violence awareness campaign that did not reach out to its afficionados was a job half-done. That was the rationale for including a kacheri last year, and it remained valid this year.

Vidya Kalyanaraman agreed enthusiastically to be part of the campaign and the campaign concert. This very young, rising musician trained with Padma Sandilyan and Suguna Varadhachari. Six years ago, she had already performed at Rashtrapati Bhavan. We were certainly lucky she was happy to sing for Prajnya programme!

That’s the backstory of how this very unusual evening of music was put together! Many phone calls, emails and auto-rides later, we were all at Srinivasa Sastri Hall, Mylapore, and it was show-time!

An evening of uplifting music

A word about Srinivasa Sastri Hall: I first heard of this venue when Sowmya mentioned it. Srinivasa Sastri Hall is located in the building of the South Indian National Association, which also houses the Ranade Library. Three things predisposed me favourably towards this venue. First, the magic word ‘Ranade.’ Those who have known me for a long time know this is special for two reasons. MG Ranade and I are both Elphinstonians. Moreover, I ran Elphi’s Ranade Society for History and Politics for two years. The second was just its historical antecedents. As a very new Chennai organization with a new-to-Chennai Managing Trustee (me), Prajnya is always happy to connect with positive and liberal elements of Chennai’s history. Finally, this was a venue where nationalist meetings took place and this was also a sought-after music venue in the old days. I only saw the hall on November 26, but already liked when I heard about it!

Back the evening itself, which actually began in the afternoon. Sudha Raja and the Snehidhi Singers—as we christened the CWDR group—met early for a dress rehearsal even as the Prajnya team and volunteers set up the hall. The Snehidhi Singers came dressed in maroon sarees and stood out everywhere! By 5 p.m., the first of the ‘podis’ (little ones, Tamils) began to arrive. Their arrival immediately made a festival out of the programme. Exuberant, energetic little presences filled the hall with positive vibrations. By 6 p.m., the hall was packed and the mood reminiscent of a musical gem from another world: Perpetual Motion!

This evening, for a change, Sowmya played MC! Taking an evening off from performing in the run-up to the Margazhi season, she introduced the programme and performers.

The programme began with the children singing. They had already become restless waiting for the clock to strike six. Even before the MC took the mike, Sudha and her colleague Rangashri had to herd them up to stage just to occupy them and use up some of their energy!

To be very honest, most of us in the audience did not know whether to look at the darlings and gush or listen to them and gush. Whatever grown-up cares we brought to Srinivasa Sastri Hall were erased—if only temporarily—by the SaReGaa performance. The children sang:

1. Vaarungal Vaarungal

2. Shanti Geet

3. Raama Janaardhana

4. Kuttanaadu

5. Ye Waqt ki Aawaaz Hai

6. Maitrim Bhajata

Second on stage, the Snehidhi Singers sang joyously, and the ‘Tandanadana Tandanana’ of their Kummi Adi, is still ringing in my ears as I write this. Their performance had joy and dignity and resolve. We only managed a few training sessions, as I wrote earlier, but determination and practice had truly made them perfect. We were all moved but their dedication and discipline; so many of us take opportunities like this for granted.

Music is a gift—whether you are singing or playing an instrument or listening. The Snehidhi Singers, through their resolve and performance, showed that they recognized the value of this gift—perhaps more than many of us who have more opportunitues do. They sang:

1. Kummi Adi

2. Odi Vilayaadu

3. Siru Siru Malarai

The words of the last song, similar to ‘Little drops of water… make the mighty ocean,’ were so appropriate for AIKYA, a programme that brought together girls (and a few boys) and women from different parts of Chennai, different life-stages and singing in different styles to say one simple thing: We will not allow the silence about gender violence to continue. We will talk. We will write. We will organize. We will sing. We will end that silence.

In the strong, sure single voice of Vidya Kalyanaraman, the buzz of the many voices merged—as if particles into essence. Vidya was accompanied by B.Ananthakrishnan on the violin and Kallidaikurichi Shivakumar on the mridangam. She chose to sing songs by women composers, some as well-known as Andal and Ambujam Krishna and others less well-known like Rukmini Raman. She even forsook the traditional Mangalam ending for a song about Hanuman, which was written by a woman.

Carnatic music afficionados attending the concert who were hearing Vidya for the first time were very impressed by her performance. I know I felt a great deal of stress and exhaustion wash away as I closed my eyes and listened to her sing. A few short years from now, not even that long, Prajnya can proudly say: “Oh, Vidya performed at the campaign concert in 2010! She’s an old friend of ours!”

Are you tired of my gushing? There’s only one solution, to come to our programmes so you don’t have to read about them. And if you really couldn’t make it and wish you had, we did record the proceedings and will post here when we figure out what we want to do with the recordings.

PS: Blogger won't let me post pictures in here. Will do so separately.

Day 2: Aikya, an evening of music

2010-11-28T07:15:00.004+05:30

Uma Vangal looks back at Aikya, an evening of music, on day two of our campaign

The women silently filed on to the stage and when they rendered kummiyadi penne gummiyadi … nammai piditha pisasugal poyina nanami kandom endru kummiyadi, it was not just a folk song that was being sung. These women, largely from the domestic workers association of CWDR formed the Snehidhi singers. They followed this up with siru siru malargal and odi vilayudu paapa, songs on women’s freedom penned by the immortal Tamil poet, Bharathi. And as they sang paadhagam seybavarai kandaal avar mugathil umizhndhu vidu paapa, the children in the audience got the message that gender violence was unacceptable

After all, just a little earlier, a host of voices lifted in gusto, as a group of 40 children ranging from 4 to 14 sang ‘santhi geet’, ‘yeh waqt ki awaaz’

and other songs on national integration, integrity and tolerance. When they ended the with maithrim bajatham the applause was deafening. The parents and other guests rewarded the two groups of performers a resounding round of applause

Both groups were trained in harmonic singing by Sudha Raja who has been singing in the Madras Youth Choir since her 9^th grade for over 30 years now. With tears welling up she says proudly “these women have been training for merely 2 weeks and juts 3 classes while the children have been training for just 12 classes. For me it is a touching moment as these women sang with their heart and soul” She adds that the children too have been taught to sing after understanding the import of the lyrics. “I am overwhelmed by their performance today” she says with pride amidst her tears.

Such were the moments that marked Aikya, an evening of music

organized by the Prajnya trust as part of its ongoing 16 day awareness campaign on gender violence. The musical evening was held at Srinivasa Sastri hall and began with S. Sowmya, well known carnatic musician and trustee, Prajnya, introducing Prajnya’s 3^rd edition of the campaign.

For the next 2 hours Vidya Kalyanaraman sang 8 songs composed by women - mangalam ganapathy, andal, rukmini ramani, padma veeraraghavan, ambujam krishna , neela ramamurthy, a meera bhajan and suguna purushotthaman.

For Vidya, it was a different experience from her usual concerts since this was the first time she worked on thematic selection of compositions. “ it has made me more sensitive to women as composers and musicians and how they get left out just as mush as other work by women across professions”

On what motivated her to organize 3 such different performances for the evening, Sowmya shared “It was true confluence of these musical genres and diverse groups of people we reached out to this evening. The domestic workers, the children and through them their parents and also carnatic artistic community and music aficionados have all been sensitized to the issues of gender violence. This will go along way on also making music and art a means of sensitizing people to such issues.”

If choral music proved therapeutic for the snehidhi singers, the evening proved to be a sensitive yet elevating experience for the audience, if the deafening applause was anything to go by

Know the Law - PCPNDT Act

2010-11-27T10:54:00.004+05:30

India is not known for its high standard of gender equality. A standing example is the prevalence of rampant female foeticide throughout the country. The implementation of the PCPNDT Act (Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act) is another way to try and placate the radical scenario with respect to female foeticide. This Act tries to control the misuse of sex determination techniques. Its the irony of ironies that one on hand we are technologically moving ahead but on the other we are grossly misusing the technology to not give a child the basic right, a chance to live. The use of technology to such perverse measures does not really speak highly of the Indian mentality with regards to the girl child.

The statistics are also a cause for concern.
YEAR - SEX RATIO
Females per 1,000 males
1901 - 972
1911 - 964
1921 - 955
1931 - 950
1941 - 945
1951 - 946
1961 - 941
1971 - 930
1981 - 934
1991 - 927
2001 - 933
Source: Census of India, 2001.

If we are to take a look at the census report we would agree with the serious issues raised by raised by the Supreme Court in CEHAT Vs Union of India.

The Supreme Court, taking a serious view of the onslaught of sex-selective discriminatory practices by the medical fraternity, and the connection it may have with the use of pre-natal sex determination, directed the Centre to implement the PC & PNDT Act in all its aspects. The order came following a public interest petition filed by the centre for the Enquiry of Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT), the Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsh Mandal (MASUM) and Dr. Sabu George, who had done extensive research in this area.

Salient Features of the Act:

The Act provides for prohibition of the technique for sex determination of the foetus, prohibits the advertising of the technique and also provides for regulation of the technique including penalties for offending parties.
The exceptional circumstances for the usage of the technique includes:
detection of any of the following abnormalities, namely:—
(i) chromosomal abnormalities;
(ii) genetic metabolic diseases;
(iii) haemoglobinopathies;
(iv) sex-linked genetic diseases;
(v) congenital anomalies;
(vi) any other abnormalities or diseases as may be specified by the Central Supervisory Board;

any of the following conditions are to be fulfilled, namely:—

(i) age of the pregnant woman is above thirty-five years;
(ii) the pregnant woman has undergone of two or more spontaneous abortions or foetal loss;
(iii) the pregnant woman had been exposed to potentially teratogenic agents such as drugs,
radiation, infection or chemicals;
(iv) the pregnant woman or her spouse has a family history of mental retardation or physical
deformities such as, spasticity or any other genetic disease;
(v) any other condition as may be specified by the Central Supervisory Board;

Section 5 of the Act also insists on the importance of women’s written consent. Section 24 lays down that unless the contrary is proved the court shall presume that a pregnant woman was compelled by her husband or relatives to undergo the test and such person shall be held for abetment of the offence.

The Act also provides that the Genetic counselling centres and clinics will be registered under the Act and will be under the scanner. The Central Supervisory Board will advice and aid in implementation of policy matters with regards to the Act. There is also an Advisory Board in place to facilitate smooth functioning of the Act. The offences under this Act are non-bailable, non-compoundable and cognizable.
It is very sad indeed that the unprotected so-called burdensome girl child needs a legislation to protect every human’s basic right- the right to live. Is this a mark of civilization is the question every Indian should be asking.

Day 1: Gender violence and Social Work

2010-11-25T21:38:00.006+05:30

And before we know, its 25 November again. The first day of the third edition of the Prajnya 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence.

We'd decided to begin the campaign with a workshop for social work students, in partnership with the Madras School of Social Work. So 2pm, and we're in a room with 70 MSW students, including some from other colleges in Chennai. I was very happy to see that there were more young men than women in the room, and was really hoping I'd be able to keep them awake, interested and thinking about the issue.

First up, a brief introduction to Prajnya and the campaign, and most importantly, the answer to that frequently asked question: why do you do this campaign? Next, several 'activities' to get the group thinking about gender violence: a word association game, a drawing exercise, a quick group discussion. I then switched over the lecture mode briefly, highlighting some key conceptual issues, clarifying definitions (gender violence v/s violence against women, for instance), and discussing the many forms of violence.

One hour in, and it was Namitha's turn to take over. As a social work graudate herself, Namitha was really best places to discuss some practical, real-life situations with the group, drawing on her own experiences. What do you say to someone who asks you if your vocational training programme will help her earn more than she did as a sex worker? What do you say to doctors and nurses who don't even realise or document burn injuries inflicted on a wife by her husband? How do you help a woman who has been raped by her father get an abortion if your personal faith says its the wrong thing to do? The objective was to illustrate that you just can't find some answers in the classroom.

My turn again, and this time, we moved on to discussing the specific role of a social worker in addressing gender violence. I was keen to emphasise a few key points: that no matter what kind of organisation they joined after graduation, this would be relevant, it isn't just a women's issue; that they would have direct opportunities to help those who'd experienced violence and therefore ought to make sure they knew their facts and used the right vocabulary; and that they needed to understand the importance of keeping careful records, of respecting privacy and confidentiality, and above all, prioritising safety.

Several questions, some with easy others, others that didn't have any. But all in all, a wonderful day, and a great beginning to the 2010 campaign!

About the Prajnya Campaign: In the Blogs of Friends

2010-11-25T18:01:00.000+05:30

Women's Web carries a guest post by Prajnya volunteers, Nandhini Shanmugham (who put this blog together) and Sweta Narayanan.

Gender Violence: We Need Collective Action, November 25, 2010.

They are also carrying factbuttons through the 16 Days, with information relating to gender violence.

Fleximoms also blogged about us.

Campaigning to Fight Violence Against Women, November 25, 2010.

Thank you so much! When we work together, we create the conditions for change. When we work together as friends, we generate the energy to push harder and the enthusiasm to push creatively.

2010 Campaign Album: Day 1: "Gender Matters" Workshop at MSSW, Nov 25

2010-11-25T17:04:00.003+05:30

Photos from the first day. I didn't stay all the way, just to deliver things from the office, watch set-up and make some introductory remarks. So these are not pictures of the entire workshop. Hope to add a few more!

The banner's up. The campaign's started in earnest!

Avid workshoppers.
Wide awake even at 2:30 p.m.!

Supraja, MSSW student introduces
Prajnya and the workshop.
Supraja attended the 2009 Campaign
TOT on sexual harassment,

and also worked with Prajnya

as an intern on a needs assessment project.

Anupama Srinivasan, Programme Director,
Gender Violence Research and Information Taskforce,
opens the workshop.

Word association game for 'gender violence'.
The board filled up very quickly!

Know the Law - Indian Constitution and Women

2010-11-25T14:58:00.002+05:30

The constitution is the basic document guaranteeing our rights, duties and declares the principles governing the operations of the organs of the Government. The Indian constitution guarantees political, economic and social rights to its citizens, special provisions are also made n the constitution for women and children.

Article 14 guarantees right to equality and Article 15 provides that there will be no discrimination on the grounds of sex. Article 16 provides equal opportunities for all and prohibits discrimination against women.

Article 15 :

Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth

(1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them

(2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to

(a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and palaces of public entertainment; or

(b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public

(3) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children

(4) Nothing in this article or in clause ( 2 ) of Article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes

Justice Krishna Iyer stroke down the arguments put forth in favour of women employees compulsory retiring in case of marriage in the case of Air India Vs Nargis Dutta. Article 15 was used to prove that discrimination against women on the basis of sex. Another landmark judgement which paved the way for gender equality was the case of Gita Hariharan Vs Reserve Bank of India. For the first time the court recognized that the mother can be the natural guardian of a minor.

Article 21 guarantees right to life and liberty. An LIC questionnaire which sought to know about the menstrual cycle of women candidates was consideres a violation of Article 21 in the case of Neera Mathur Vs LIC. The unforgettable Vishaka Vs State of Rajasthan reiterated the need for laws on sexual harassment and right to work with dignity as recognized by the Indian Constitution.

Right against exploitation is recognized under Article 23 of the Indian Constitution. The Article prohibits trafficking.

The Directive Principles of State Policy also can be used to reiterate our rights but unfortunately these rights as guaranteed by the directive principles are not enforceable. Article 39 guarantees equal pay for equal work for men and women.

Article 39

Certain principles of policy to be followed by the State: The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing

(a) that the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means to livelihood;

(b) that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good;

(c) that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment;

(d) that there is equal pay for equal work for both men and women;

(e) that the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength;

(f) that children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment

Women’s representation in local bodies is guaranteed by the 73rd and the 74th amendments. Thus the Indian Constitution offers adequate rights to women, its implementation is however the question lingering on all minds.

Know the law

2010-11-25T10:50:00.006+05:30

The Prajnya 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence begins TODAY.

We're delighted to announce the launch of a new series on this blog, 'Know the law', by Sandhya Ramaswamy, one of our volunteers who is a law student at ILS Law College in Pune. Over the next 16 days, Sandhya will outline and explain the basic provisions of several laws related to the issue of gender violence and violence against women.

For the last two decades, there has been sustained lobbying and advocacy by women's organisations, for effective legislation. As a result, India has several strong laws on many different of violence including pre-natal sex selection and domestic violence. A law on workplace sexual harassment and substantial revisions to legislation on rape are also in the pipeline.

It is up to each one of us to become legally literatre, to know our laws, understand how we can use them. Of course, legislation isn't a one-step solution - there are issues related to effective implementation of the laws as well as other concerns outside the judicial sphere.

But the fact is, this is a critical step towards eliminating violence against women. So follow the Campaign Chronicle, know your laws and of course, feel free to give us any relevant feedback.

TakeBackTheTech Video on ICT and VAW

2010-11-25T10:38:00.000+05:30

What can you do to end violence against women?

Take a look at this terrific video on the abuse of technology to perpetuate violence against women.

16 Days Global calendar

2010-11-24T16:17:00.001+05:30

The global 16 Days Calendar is up!

Take a look: http://16dayscwgl.rutgers.edu/campaign-calendar

Check out the India page to see what Prajnya, and other organisations are doing as part of this year's campaign.

The campaign on Women's Web

2010-11-21T18:44:00.000+05:30

Women's Web carried an interview about the campaign on November 17. They will also be carrying "fact-buttons" on gender violence through the campaign. Do check out Women's Web regularly!

Final Countdown to the 2010 Campaign!

2010-11-21T18:37:00.000+05:30

It's a measure of how challenging this year's campaign has been and continues to be to put together, that the shutter-happy Prajnya team has neither taken the usual flood of photos nor even blogged much in the run-up. It's the weekend before the campaign and I thought I would somewhat remedy this!

So here is the campaign countdown album, friends! Hope you're inspired to come to our public events and to come work with us in months to come!

Planning session

Planning session: Campaign Coordinator explaining an event.

Snehidhi Singers at rehearsal. Trainer Sudha Raja at right end.

This year's posters


All our bags are packed and we're ready to go to the press meet. November 22, 2010

RI to warders in Rita Mary case 2001

2010-10-30T09:50:00.001+05:30

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/HC-confirms-10-yr-RI-to-warders-who-raped-teen-in-jail/articleshow/6838156.cms

In the news: Legislation for “Protection of Women from Sexual Harassment at the Workplace” soon

2010-10-29T10:40:00.005+05:30

Here's the text of a speech made by the Minister of State for Women and Child Development (Independent Charge) Smt. Krishna Tirath at the Meeting of State Secretaries held recently. You can link to it here.

A two-day meeting of the State Secretaries in charge of Women and Child Development was inaugurated in New Delhi today by Minister of State for Women and Child Development (Independent Charge) Smt. Krishna Tirath. The meeting has been convened to review the progress in implementation of Central schemes of the Ministry and to roll out the two new schemes recently approved by the Cabinet.

Following is the text of the Speech of Minister of State for Women and Child Development (Independent Charge) Smt. Krishna Tirath at the meeting of State Secretaries:

“Secretary, Women and Child development, Shri D. K. Sikri, State Secretaries and Officers from State Governments, Officers from the Ministry of Women and Child Development, organizations affiliated to our Ministry, and other esteemed guests and dear friends…

First of all, I welcome you all to this meeting. We have assembled here today to discuss a number of important issues. I am especially thankful that all of you are here to attend this meeting despite your busy schedule. As you all know, our work at the Centre and in the States for women and children is a shared responsibility, which requires the highest degree of commitment, collaboration and transparency from all of us. The services provided by us must reach the unserved and underserved and all those targeted under the Schemes and programmes of the Government. I look to each one of you to collectively work towards achieving the mandate of ensuring overall survival, development, protection and participation of women and children of the country.

Since our last meeting in June with the State Ministers and all of you there has been considerable movement forward. It gives me great pleasure to share these with you.

At the outset, it is a source of hope and pride for me to state that the Cabinet has given approval two very important Schemes of the Ministry - the ‘Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls – ‘SABLA’ and the ‘Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana’ (IGMSY in short). The States, having been a part of the consultative process in formulation of the schemes, have been enthusiastically looking forward to their launch and it gives me great pleasure to share this moment with you.

Both these schemes cater to two very vulnerable groups amongst both women and children, namely, adolescent girls and pregnant working women. Whereas SABLA aims to address the needs of adolescent girls in the age group of 11-18 years, the IGMSY looks to secure social protection for pregnant working women by providing part compensation of wage losses incurred due to pregnancy and post delivery circumstances.

SABLA has been approved for implementation in 200 districts; to begin with on a pilot basis. It is being launched on 19th November, 2010 in the country. Expansion of this scheme in the 12th Plan period would depend mainly on its successful implementation in the pilot phase. Keeping in mind the vulnerable age group that it caters to, I urge you to give this Scheme the highest attention it deserves at the pilot stage so that it can be continued and expanded in the next Plan period. The Scheme will focus on creating Kishori Samoohs, starting non- nutrition interventions, establishing convergence with various departments and create monitoring and supervision committees for the same. As the efficacy of all these initiatives would depend on creating widespread awareness in the States regarding the Scheme, I urge all of you to ensure that information, about the importance of these interventions and the services provided for in the Scheme, is spread to all stakeholders especially the larger community in the pilot districts. We have hope that Sabala will create generations of empowered young women who will transform their own lives and better the existence of the communities they live in.

It also gives me immense satisfaction to tell you that the ‘Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana’ (IGMSY) will also be launched soon. It is a pioneering effort of conditional cash transfer at a scale not envisaged earlier. It is, as many of you must be well aware already, a scheme that provides part compensation of wage losses to pregnant working women and thereby aims to help them to take adequate rest and look after the health and nutrition status of both their infant and their own. The scheme is to be implemented in 52 districts shortly and like SABALA, its expansion would depend on quality of implementation at the pilot stage. Through this Scheme, pregnant and lactating women would be provided cash benefits of Rs.4,000/- each in three phases, starting from the end of the 2nd trimester, upto 6 months and after delivery, dependent on certain conditions, which we sincerely hope would foster health seeking behavior amongst them. I cannot emphasise enough that expansion of these services would depend on the success of the pilot. We are looking towards all the State Governments/UT Administrations to provide full support so that these benefits can be made universal at the earliest. I am sure you will appreciate that both these schemes will combine with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) to tackle the vicious cycle of intergenerational malnutrition across age groups, through a continuum of services. It is essential therefore that these Schemes deliver and thereby serve the purpose for which they have been conceived.

Tremendous progress has been made towards framing a law that would ensure gender equality and safety for women at the workplace. We will soon have legislation for “Protection of Women from Sexual harassment at the Workplace” in place. The EFC has cleared the Scheme for financial and support services to victims of rape” – a scheme for restorative justice. It is expected to be notified soon. We are taking all these steps to move towards creating a gender just society.

As you all know, the ICDS is one of the worlds’ largest and most unique programmes for Early Childhood Care and also education. The 3rd phase of expansion has resulted in more than 12.14 lakh operational Anganwadi Centres through 6575 Projects.

However, I must share my concern with you regarding the quality of services. With all the resources available to us, it is now for us to take the Scheme to the next level, by ensuring that the services, actually reach the targeted beneficiaries; the delivering of SNP is timely and uninterrupted and that there is no compromise with quality. We should see the challenges as an inspiration for better implementation of the Scheme. I have expressed the concerns of the Ministry, about quality and regularity of services, to many of the States individually. I urge you to share the difficulties being faced freely so that solutions can be thought of.

While the Ministry of Women and Child Development is deeply committed to the well being and protection of the over 4400 lakh children in our country, we realize that we cannot put a protection system in place without proactive participation of the State Governments/UT Administrations. Once implemented in its true spirit, the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) which gives financial and technical assistance to State Governments, to set up structures for provision of quality services for children in difficult circumstances, would ensure that such children are safe and secure in this country. 28 States have signed MOUs till date with GOI to access funds under the Scheme. I urge upon all the remaining States/UTs to do it and to those who have signed to submit their proposal in time. Twelve financial proposals have been received for the current year for release of grants. I urge all other States to expedite their proposals.

Besides, we will be reviewing the implementation of the ‘Protection of Women from Domestic Violence, Act’. Any violence against women is reprehensible. There cannot be a more heinous crime than violence at home which destroys both the woman and the family. All the State Governments have appointed Protection Officers and there are 6560 Protection Officers in position today. However, in States where Social Welfare Officers, CDPOs etc. have been given additional charge of being Protection Officer, independent Protection Officers with adequate infrastructural support, may be appointed at the earliest. They will be able to discharge their responsibilities under the Act effectively only then. Alongside the States may notify service providers and medical facilities under this Act, without further delay.

Increased employment opportunities and Government initiatives on education, have led to an increase of women in the work force. Nevertheless, they continue to fulfill dual responsibilities – that of the bread winner and home-maker. The Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme (RGNCS) for children of working mothers provides day care services primarily to children of mothers working in the unorganized sector. However the reach of the service is still limited. This leads to either children being left with inadequate care while their mothers are at work, or women avoiding gainful employment to look after their children at home. Moreover, recent reviews have highlighted the inadequacy of the procedures for assessment of demand, selection of NGOs and workers and monitoring, as these are mostly internally driven. A Committee to suggest improvements in the Scheme has recommended increased involvement of the State Governments in the implementation of the scheme to address these issues. States had accordingly been requested to carry out a demand survey and conduct inspection of existing crèches. We are still awaiting a response from all of you.

We are here today to share our concerns and to also see how we can move forward. I would urge all of you to please share your information and concerns regarding all other issues (such as foeticide and Child Marriage) and interventions (Swadhar, Step and Ujwala Scheme) in your State, so that we can together think of solutions to the challenges being faced.

Let us all open our hearts and minds and realize the magnitude of the responsibility placed on each one of us. I wish you all the best for the discussions to follow and look towards all of you to make our common dream of an India where even the most vulnerable and voiceless are holders of rights and realize their aspirations and dreams, a reality. ”

Women, war, violence: A UNFPA report

2010-10-25T09:49:00.005+05:30

UNFPA has released its The State of World Population 2010 Report. Here's an excerpt from the foreword section. You can access the entire document here

Women rarely wage war, but they too often suffer the worst of its consequences.

Gender-based violence, including rape, is a repugnant and increasingly familiar weapon of war. The immediate toll it takes extends far beyond its direct victims, insidiously tearing apart families and shattering societies for generations to come.

Conflict today is less about soldiers engaging in battle with soldiers on the other side of a national border and more about combatants struggling for control within a single country and employing any means to break the will of civilians - women, girls, men and boys - by disempowering them physically, psychologically, economically, and socially.

In many of today's conflicts, women are disempowered by rape or the threat of it, and by the HIV infection, trauma and disabilities that often result from it. Girls are disempowered when they cannot go to school because of the threat of violence, when they are abducted or trafficked, or when their families disintegrate or must flee. In some conflicts, men are also disempowered by sexual violence. Boys, too, are sometimes exploited or forced to become soldiers.

The State of World Population 2010 explores how conflict and protracted humanitarian emergencies affect women and girls - and men and boys - and shows how many women and young people have overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles and have begun rebuilding their lives and laying the foundation for peace and renewal of their societies.

In the news: Love Commandos

2010-10-22T15:38:00.003+05:30

A fascinating story, about a volunteer group called the Love Commandos, based in New Delhi, who have
"united to help inter-caste couples tie the knot without fear of getting killed for 'honour'" . Read the story here:

Love commandos to counter honour killings

A flood of news reports

2010-10-21T20:03:00.009+05:30

I logged onto the NDTV website this evening, and in less than five minutes, I had spotted three different stories related to gender-based violence, in one way or the other.

At Ahmedabad's NID, nude man molests student

From Ahmedabad, the story of a student at the National Institute of Design (NID), who was assaulted by a naked man as she stepped out of her room onto the second floor corridor of the hostel, to get a glass of water from the cooler.

The last line of the news story: "There are about 250 girls in the NID who live in the college hostel. After sunset, now, they say they avoid leaving the hostel.

"

As we plan this year's campaign, we're doing a lot of reading and thinking about women's safety in public spaces, even in a city like Chennai that is considered relatively safe. From the stories we hear, this is clear: the burden is on women to protect themselves, and the easiest and often safest way to do this is to restrict their own movements. What does this say about their quality of life, if they cannot go down the road to buy a magazine or meet some friends for fear of being assaulted?

Indian American indicted for groping sleeping woman on flight

From the US, the story of a woman who was groped on a flight by a man sitting next to her. Again, whats striking is two things:
1. A case of sexual assault has been filed against the perpetrator. We know of many instances when similar incidents have been dismissed as trivial, and the woman is often told to just forget about it.
2. The incident took place on 28 September and less than a month later, charges have been framed and the case is in court.

I do not know enough about the US legal system to judge whether this is unusually quick or normal enough. But the fact is, if we could promise women speedy justice, without long-drawn out court appearances, I'm convinced that many more women would come forward to file charges against perpetrators of violence.

My grandmother wanted a boy: Saina Nehwal

And finally, back in India, Saina Nehwal talks about how her grandmother refused to look at her for a month after she was born - she was that disappointed that Saina wasn't a boy. Saina talks openly about how she has strained relations with her extended family who disagree with her parents on how women should be treated, and of how she hopes the wonderful performance of sportswomen from Haryana will have some effect on how families perceive the girl child.

Wife Beating ok!!!???

2010-10-19T10:45:00.001+05:30

ABU DHABI (UAE): A man can beat his wife and young children, as long as he leaves no marks on the body, UAE's highest court has ruled. Ruling in a case where a man beat up his wife and adult daughter, the court took exception to the cuts and bruises he caused.

The decision by the Federal Supreme Court shows the strong influence of Islamic law in the Emirates, which, in fact, is less conservative than some Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, where women are forbidden from driving and travelling without male company.

It said the man was guilty of harming the women but noted that Islamic codes allow for ``discipline'' if no marks are left. It added that children who have reached ``adulthood'' -- approximately puberty -- cannot be struck.

``Although the (law) permits the husband to use his right (to discipline), he has to abide by the limits of this right," an Abu Dhabi daily quoted chief justice Falah al-Hajeri as saying in the ruling released on Sunday. The man's daughter was 23, hence too old to be disciplined in this fashion, it noted.

Read more: UAE court says okay to wife-beating - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/UAE-court-says-okay-to-wife-beating/articleshow/6771422.cms#ixzz12mLGnMFK

In the news: Doctor rapes patient in ICU

2010-10-18T11:10:00.000+05:30

Doctor allegedly rapes patient in ICU

Mumbai: A doctor allegedly raped a Koparkhairane resident in a semi-conscious state inside the ICU of Lotus hospital in Vashi on Saturday night.

The victim, a 30-year-old woman was admitted to the ICU of Lotus Hospital in Vashi and kept under observation as she was suffering from low blood pressure.

The accused, a resident doctor on night duty allegedly raped her while she was in a semiconscious state. Police say the doctor has confessed to his crime.

Hospital authorities refused to comment stating that they had cooperated with the police and had informed them when the complaint was received.

According to Purshottam Karad, assistant commissioner of police, Vashi division, the woman said she was semi-conscious and too weak to resist the doctor’s moves. Besides, she added, there were just one or two patients in the room. They were fast asleep since they were under medication. There weren’t many staff members either because it was Dussehra on Sunday.

The Vashi police registered a case under section 307 (rape) against the accused and arrested him around 3pm on Sunday. “We have sent the accused and the woman for a medical test at the NMMC hospital in Vashi. We can establish the facts only when we get the medical reports,” senior police inspector Rao Saheb Sardesai

In the news: Legislation with respect to sex selection

2010-10-13T16:02:00.002+05:30

Make laws against pre-natal sex selection more stringent: Vyas

Tue, Oct 12 04:06 PM

New Delhi, Oct 12 (PTI) The national commissions for women and human rights today voiced serious concern over the decline in ratio of girls to boys and suggested making laws more stringent to check pre-natal sex selection and female foeticide in the country. "Sex ratio is declining in the country every year due to female foeticide.

We had suggested certain amendments in the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (prohibition of sex selection) Act, 1994, three years ago but nothing has so far been done.

The Act should be more stringent," Chairperson of National Commission for Women Girija Vyas said. She was addressing a conference organised jointly by National Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Women on ''Pre-natal sex selection in India:Issues, Concerns and action''.

Vyas noted that "abortion is allowed in extraordinary situation but there is no such distinction (in practice). Not a single state, even Kerala, is spared (where incidents of female foeticide do not occur).

" Practice of female foeticide is still continuing in many states including several districts of Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Rajasthan. None of the health clinics have been found to be "upto the mark" even in the national capital, she said.

Addresing the conference, NHRC chairperson Justice K G Balakrishnan lamented that there is no law in the country to address the basic regulatory requirements for opening a hospital. "Unfortunately in India, there are no effective provision for opening a clinic, a health centre, even a hospital.

There is no law to address the basic things, fundamental (regulatory) requirements for opening a hospital," he said.

In the news: Raped for raising a voice

2010-10-12T16:42:00.001+05:30

Dalit woman raped for objecting to discrimination

Jait, Madhya Pradesh: A 50-year-old Dalit woman who had complained of being denied entry into a temple in Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh's village, Jait, about three months ago, has now alleged that she was raped by two men for speaking against the upper castes.

The woman had spoken out against discrimination by upper castes in Jait three months ago and that complaint had caused major embarrassment to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhansince Jait is his native place.

The National Minorities Commission ordered an inquiry and Chauhan visited Jait soon after to declare that Dalits were being treated as equals. But now, three months after the issue was supposedly resolved, the same woman has alleged that she was raped and banished from the village because she had dared to complain.

She said, “Liladhar and Bimlesh these two men barged into my house, cut off the electricity and raped me. Now I have been forced out of the village. No one is registering my complaint. I have no where to go."

Seizing the opportunity to embarrass the Chief Minister, Congress took the victim to the state Director General of Police who in turn ordered an inquiry.

Aruna Rao, Inspector General of police said, “The DG has asked me to conduct an enquiry and we are looking into the complaint.”

Chauhan so far has refused to comment on the woman's complaint even as efforts are on to reach a compromise.

Honour killing

2010-10-11T17:32:00.000+05:30

Here is an example of the naked face of misogyny as similarly depicted in the film "The Stoning of Soraya M." which takes place in Iran. Adding insult to injury, Tony Blair stopped an inquiry into kickbacks on Saudi/UK arms deals when the Saudis threatened to stop sharing intelligence about terrorist activity if the inquiry went forward. This kind of government collusion of silence in the face of outrageously misogynistic behavior and policies in Islamic states must end. "British diplomats believe that to do so would in effect be to highlight the persecution of women in Saudi Arabia, which would be viewed as open criticism of the House of Saud and lead to embarrassing publicity for both governments." - this is a damning indictment!

Kathy Sloan
NOW
Princess facing Saudi death penalty given secret UK asylum
Woman feared she would be stoned after giving birth to an illegitimate child in Britain
By Robert Verkaik, Home Affairs Editor
Monday, 20 July 2009
The Independent

A Saudi Arabian princess who had an illegitimate child with a British man has secretly been granted asylum in this country after she claimed she would face the death penalty if she were forced to return home. The young woman, who has been granted anonymity by the courts, won her claim for refugee status after telling a judge that her adulterous affair made her liable to death by stoning.

Her case is one of a small number of claims for asylum brought by citizens of Saudi Arabia which are not openly acknowledged by either government. British diplomats believe that to do so would in effect be to highlight the persecution of women in Saudi Arabia, which would be viewed as open criticism of the House of Saud and lead to embarrassing publicity for both governments.

The woman, who comes from a very wealthy Saudi family, says she met her English boyfriend – who is not a Muslim – during a visit to London. They struck up a relationship.
Related articles
* Fate of another royal found guilty of adultery
* Saudi film festival is cancelled in state crackdown on culture
* Gerd Nonneman: Delicate relationship where national interests and morality often conflict
She became pregnant the following year and worried that her elderly husband – a member of the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia – had become suspicious of her behaviour, she persuaded him to let her visit the UK again to give birth in secret. She feared for her life if she returned to Saudi Arabia.

She persuaded the court that if she returned to the Gulf state she and her child would be subject to capital punishment under Sharia law – specifically flogging and stoning to death. She was also worried about the possibility of an honour killing.

Since she fled Saudi Arabia, her family and her husband's family have broken off contact with her.

The woman has been granted permanent leave to remain in the UK after the Immigration and Asylum tribunal allowed her appeal.

The Home Office yesterday declined to discuss the case. A spokesman for the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in London said that he would call back but subsequently became unavailable.

Relations between the UK and Saudi Arabia have been strained in recent years and were brought to a head in 2006 when Tony Blair intervened to end a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) inquiry into alleged kickbacks paid in a multibillion military aircraft deal between the two states.

The Saudi royal family was deeply concerned about the idea that the investigators might try o open up their Swiss bank accounts, it was alleged at the time.

This led the Saudis to threaten to restrict the sharing of intelligence relating to terror activity if the prosecution went ahead. They also threatened to pull out of other highly-lucrative arms deals.

Last year, the House of Lords ruled that the SFO's decision to drop the corruption investigation into the £43bn Saudi arms deal with BAE Systems was unlawful.

In a hard-hitting ruling, two High Court judges described the SFO's decision as "an outrage".

One of them, Lord Justice Moses, said the SFO and the Government had given into "blatant threats" that Saudi intelligence co-operation would end unless the probe into corruption was halted.

"No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice," he said. "It is the failure of government and the defendant to bear that essential principle in mind that justifies the intervention of this court."

The Middle East state has been shrouded in controversy over oppressive policies against women and homosexuals. Secrecy surrounds much of the Saudi legal system, but in a recent report on the use of the death penalty in the kingdom, the human rights group Amnesty International highlighted its extensive use against men and women.

Adulterers face public stonings and floggings and, in the most serious cases, beheadings and hangings.

The high numbers of executions in Saudi Arabia in 2007 continued into 2008. There were at least 102 executions of men and women last year – at an average rate of two every week. Amnesty is aware of at least 136 individuals currently awaiting execution.

Last week, Saudi Arabia's religious police were blamed for the death of two sisters who were murdered in what was deemed an "honour killing" by their brother, after the sisters were arrested for allegedly mixing with men to whom they were not related.

The Society for Defending Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia said that the religious police had arrested the two sisters, aged 19 and 21, thus putting their lives in danger.

Their brother shot them dead in front of their father when they left a women's shelter in Riyadh on 5 July, according to Saudi news reports.

In 2007, in a case that shocked Saudis, a woman from Qatif was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison after being gang-raped. She offended cultural expectations because she was unaccompanied when she got into a car with a former boyfriend.

The man had agreed to hand back a photograph of the woman who was about to marry another man, but as they drove along a street they were stopped and seized by seven men who raped them both. The woman was originally sentenced to 90 lashes but the sentence was increased when she appealed. Eventually, after an international outcry, she was pardoned.

In 2007, King Abdullah II of Saudi Arabia was jeered during a state visit to Britain as dozens of demonstrators turned out to protest at his country's human rights record.
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In the news: Cop, ally held for rape

2010-10-09T21:36:00.001+05:30

Police constable, friend arrested in Mumbai for rape

A police constable and his friend were arrested for allegedly raping a 20-year-old girl working in a hookah parlour in Mumbai, police said today.

The accused police constable Dhananjay Madne, 23, attached with local arms' wing, and his friend Arshad Ali, 21, took the victim to a resort in Manori on October 3 and raped her, additional police commissioner, Ramrao Pawar said.

The duo had threatened the girl of dire consequences if she revealed anything to anyone.

However, a complained was lodged by the victim yesterday at the suburban Goregaon police station, Pawar said.

Subsequently, the two have been arrested on charges of rape and the case would be transferred to Gorai police station since the alleged crime took place in their jurisdiction, he added.

TISS rape case: Accused acquitted

2010-10-07T19:03:00.003+05:30

TISS rape case accuse acquitted

Eighteen months after a 23-year-old American student of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) was allegedly gang raped, the case has wound up with all six accused acquitted.

The verdict pronounced by a Sewri fast track court on Wednesday caused considerable tremors as the police had filed a chargesheet against the accused based on the victim's testimony after her medical and forensic report failed to confirm sexual assault.

Ironically, it was this testimony which proved to be the undoing of the prosecution's case, and ultimately led to all the six walking free.

On April 15, 2009, the TISS student had registered a complaint with the Trombay police alleging gang rape by six of her friends on April 12.

The complainant was here to do a four-month course at the institute and had accompanied the men to XO bar in Deonar, and subsequently to an apartment in Andheri where she alleged she was drugged and gang raped.

(Click on link for full story)

child abuse

2010-10-06T19:30:00.002+05:30

The most shocking part of Delhi's recent case of child abuse over a period of 18 months a school van driver repeatedly drugged, raped and sodomised three children aged between seven and 12 entrusted in his care is the swiftness with which it has been erased from public memory. Distracted by the ongoing violence in Kashmir, and the skeletons falling out of the closet of the CWG, the media seem to have lost interest in the case. There have been few follow-up stories, barring a couple which said that the police were allegedly reluctant to pursue the case as some senior classmates of the victims, who were accomplices in the crime, are said to belong to so-called 'well-connected' families. Media indifference apart, there appears to be a general public reluctance to confront the entire issue of child abuse, the most repugnant and unforgivable of crimes, more so even than murder or rape. In this particular case, the unspeakable torment that the children suffered went on unnoticed for a year and a half till, finally, a suspicious mother, noticing the strange and withdrawn behaviour of the children, and the marks on their arms where they had been injected with drugs to make them more compliant, told a neighbour who, in turn, alerted the police. Even as the Catholic church, in Ireland and elsewhere, has been shaken to its roots by the exposure of widespread paedophilia amongst its clergy and subsequent attempts to cover up such incidents in India we seem deliberately to look away from this most shameful of perversions, the corruption of innocence. These things happen in other places; they don't happen here, in our country, in our culture. Mohandas Gandhi's recorded practice of sharing his bed with nubile girls in order to test his ability to overcome physical arousal? That was an experiment in truth, not child abuse, no matter what psychological and emotional effects this may have had on those who were so experimented upon. Gandhi's experiments with truth while being violative of current norms of child protection, at least as practised in other countries did not constitute paedophilia. But to believe that paedophilia, the physical defilement of children, does not occur in India, or is very rare, would be a dangerous delusion. Reviewing Mira Nair's film, Monsoon Wedding, a Delhi-based film critic took exception to the character who had sexually abused his niece when she was a child, saying that this was an un-Indian anomaly. As Pinki Virani's unflinching testimony, Bitter Chocolate, reveals, far from being an anomaly, child abuse is horrifyingly common in India. Though the joint family system may have become outmoded, cramped quarters are frequently shared by adults and children, often breeding unhealthy proximity. The practice of leaving children with domestic help increasingly common in a milieu where both husband and wife are working can also lead to abusive practices. Some commentators have pointed out that the issue of child abuse has been overplayed in the West, with people being coaxed by motivated researchers to concoct false 'memories' of being victims of sexual predation when they were children. But if this most destructive of social diseases has indeed been overplayed in the West, it has been criminally underplayed in India. Sexual abuse apart, India's children are victims of economic necessity which compels them to do hard manual labour, often in hazardous and brutal conditions, in order to survive. India has the Right to Education Act and it has more anti-child labour laws than any other country in the world; it also has the largest number of child workers. We like to idolise childhood and infancy. But despite all our sentimentalism, Bal Krishna would have a sorry time of it in 21st century India.

Read more: Suffer the children - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Suffer-the-children/articleshow/6692659.cms#ixzz11aTU7l1Y

In the news: Cyber violence in India

2010-10-04T21:10:00.005+05:30

A few days ago, I posted a link that highlights the growing threat of cyber violence against women.

Here's a scarily similar story from Jaipur:

Jaipur: Denied dowry, man attempts to defame wife on Orkut

Jaipur: In a shocking incident, a vengeful man created his former wife's Orkut profile, complete with her mobile number and her parent's address, where she is currently residing, to defame her. The matter came to light, when the unassuming victim started getting vulgar calls, some even international ones, seeking sexual favours.

Harassed by the offensive phone calls, the victim's brother lodged a legal complaint under section 156 of the CRPC against the man, identified as Shekhar, at the Mahesh Nagar police station on Saturday evening.

Quoting the FIR, an investigating officer, said, "The victim and Shekhar tied the knot on April 25, 2005. Soon after, Shekhar started harassing his wife for dowry. When she refused to meet his demands, Shekhar forced her out and married another woman. Shekhar then created his former wife's a fake profile, including her cell number and residential address, on Orkut. She then started getting vulgar phone calls, from India and even from abroad."

Asked what kind of favours the callers demanded from the victim and her family, a police officer, on the condition of anonymity, said, "They asked her for sexual favours and several other objectionable things." Meanwhile, the police have started investigating into the matter and in due course would invite the family to know if the claims made are authentic.

"We will call them to the police station to verify the facts. If found true, Shekhar would be arrested," an officer said.

In the news: What girls experience

2010-10-04T10:48:00.004+05:30

In India, sexual harassment on the street, through mobile phones and SMSes are often pushed under the carpet as "minor irritants". With the increase in mobile phone usage all around the country, the rising cases are predictable offshoots in a society where women are already vulnerable in public spaces. The results of surveys like these must definitely be taken up by concerned governmental bodies and acted upon. Stronger legislation for instance, and public education on the same are good places to start.

What girls experience

A recent survey by Plan India, a non-government body working to promote the cause of child rights, has come up with disturbing findings. It shows teen girls in non-metropolitan cities get a far higher rate of obscene calls and text messages on their cellphones than their counterparts in places such as Delhi or Mumbai. It is, expectedly, a general problem; a third of the 10,000 girls surveyed across 10 of our cities (across classes and income levels) reported having got obscene calls or messages. But the proportion was as much as 75 per cent in Bhubaneswar, for instance, and 65 per cent in Hyderabad (it was 28 per cent in Bangalore). Our Andhra Pradesh editions have been reporting a spate of incidents where young men or male students seem to think it their right to harm or even kill girls who spurn them or have turned away after once being friends; not one seems to believe it was a wrong thing to do. It would be an all-India problem; our boys seem to be growing up with some funny ideas of what the other sex is about. The Plan India survey reported 77 per cent of the girls saying eve-teasing, the quaintly Indian phrase for what is known as sexual harassment elsewhere, was the biggest challenge they faced in urban spaces. And, that 74 per cent felt most vulnerable in public areas.

Close to half said they coped with harassment by ignoring it, a response which says a lot on our systems of involvement and redress. All these and related findings should raise questions in every family; preferably, these should be discussed with teenagers in the home. It is clear that the high proportion of harassment via the cellphone is due to ease and anonymity; apart from equipping our daughters to cope with these, we do need to consider the attitudes in question and where these would lead. It is certainly clear that both families and schools need to do a far better job in instilling the need to respect other human beings and their feelings, in public and private. Assuming the problem will go if ignored won’t do; it, clearly, is the response of many adults. Families apart, there is room for much action by others. Civic agencies, for instance, need to sit down with experts and women’s groups to address that high proportion of vulnerability in public spaces. Surveys like this need to be acted on, not archived.

In the news: Mobilising communities to address Gender-based violence

2010-10-03T16:20:00.003+05:30

In the global fight against gender-based violence, it is often important to involve local communities in educating and sensitising their members. Often, in this social evil that is severely tilted against women, the roles that men play is underestimated. Here's an interesting blog post on an empowering initiative in India.

Mobilising communities to address Gender-based violence

The Craigslist story

2010-10-02T15:09:00.003+05:30

We take our presence in cyberspace for granted most of the time - we're on facebook, we have dozens of photos, we tweet, we blog. After all, it is our right, preference, prerogative to do so! How can we continue to do all of this and at the same time, ensure we protect ourselves?

Sarah's story is an example of a malicious act with horrific, perhaps unprecedented (even to the perpetrator) consequences.

The Craigslist Rape Victim

More than 50 million Americans visit the website Craigslist every month looking for everything from lawn furniture to concert tickets to companionship. But not all of the connections have a happy ending.

Sarah says she had never been on Craigslist until last December, when she saw pictures of herself featured in a classified ad. "The caption read: 'Need an aggressive man with no concern or regard for women. If interested, contact Sarah,'" she says. "When I saw the ad for the first time, I was terrified."

After learning of the ad, Sarah says she called the police but was told there was nothing they could do. Instead, they suggested she call Craigslist directly and ask them to take the ad down. Craigslist removed the ad immediately, but it was too late.

In December 2009, Sarah was attacked at her Wyoming home. "Somebody was behind me, and they grabbed me around the shoulders and pushed me inside the house. His words to me were: 'You wanted an aggressive man, bitch. Here I am,'" Sarah says. "I begged him to stop."

Sarah tried to fight back, but her 4'11" frame was no match for her male attacker, who blindfolded her, bound her wrists and ankles with rope and ripped off her clothes. For 30 minutes, Sarah was viciously raped. Her attacker told her that if she didn't stop trying to get away, he would kill her. At one point, he even held a knife to her throat.

The man who raped Sarah was 26-year-old Ty McDowell, a married father of two who worked as a radiology technician at the local hospital. McDowell told detectives he thought he was fulfilling Sarah's rape fantasy.

After her attack, Sarah immediately called the police. A local sergeant said her 911 call was one of the worst he'd ever heard. One of the nurses who cared for Sarah said her injuries were some of the most severe she'd ever seen on a sexual assault victim. "I feel that pain all the time," Sarah says. "I can still remember every detail that went along with it."

Sarah's attacker pled guilty to sexual assault and was sentenced to at least 60 years in prison. Sarah's ex-boyfriend, Jebediah Stipe, admitted to posting the ad using her identity and was also sentenced to at least 60 years in prison.

Sarah believes Stipe posted the ad about her on Craigslist because he was angry she had gotten engaged to her fiancé. "He just kept telling me that he didn't think I was ready to get married, and I believe that he wanted Ian and me to break up."

But Sarah says she didn't know that Stipe was behind the Craigslist ad until after her attack. "While I was still in the emergency room, my fiancé, Ian, had gone back to the house to get my glasses, and there was a second man standing in the living room with a camera set," Sarah says. "[Ian] was asked why he was there, and at that point he said that he had received an email from a J. Stipe." Only then did Sarah learn that her ex had orchestrated the whole thing.

According to police, 161 people responded to the fraudulent Craigslist ad. "I was only aware that 20 people had actually responded and [that Stipe] had set up several dates and times for people to come to my house and do this to me," Sarah says. "I never imagined that there would be people like that out there that would hurt others."

Sarah has not seen her attacker or her ex-boyfriend since her attack. "At their sentencing, I was allowed to give my victim impact statement, but I could not look at either one of the men. I don't want to see either of their faces," she says.

Though Sarah says she felt empowered after standing up in court, she's still trying to wrap her mind around why people would commit such violent acts. She says she is also dealing with members of her community who have sided with her attacker. Sarah says they believe that since McDowell thought he was talking to Sarah, he believed he was doing what she wanted. "Several of my co-workers have actually said that they feel really bad for [McDowell], that he didn't know what he was doing was wrong and that he shouldn't have gotten punished as severely as he did."

Nine months later, Sarah says she has good days and bad days. "I've learned that this is something that I can't change, and it's not a bad dream," she says. "I'm trying to move forward with the rest of my life."

She says she came forward because she wanted to reclaim the power she was stripped of. "I want people to know the truth as to what really took place that morning," she says. "I also want women to know that you can have the strength and the power to overcome something of this sort. ... I can become a better person because of what has happened, and it does not define the person that I am."

After coming under fire for sexual ads, Craigslist removed the "adult services" section from its U.S. website. But authorities say crimes like this one can happen on any social network. The FBI recommends that people don't post photos or any personal information online.

Gender violence and moral policing

2010-09-27T20:57:00.002+05:30

Cross-posted from Sharanya Manivannan's blog and from the The Sunday Guardian, New Delhi.

Op-Ed: Chennai’s Moral Police
Sharanya Manivannan, September 26, 2010

In Chennai, the term “moral police” is too often a literal one.

Two relatively high-profile incidents in the past week cast the city’s police force in a frightening light, as enforcers of a deeply misogynistic worldview who go as far as to violate the law in order to uphold their principles.

In the first case, a married woman who was with a male friend at the Kotturpuram railway station was apprehended by a police officer, who then physically assaulted the friend in question and cast aspersions as to why the duo were together. When told that her husband was fully aware of this friendship, the officer threatened to make bystanders testify against her.

In the second instance, a 21-year old lesbian who had left home and subsequently been reported as a missing person by her parents voluntarily went to the Thiru-Vi-Ka police station to declare herself an adult operating under her own autonomy. She was detained for a day, and released only into the custody of a relative. Activists from the gay rights group Sangama, who were supporting her, were harassed.

The moral universe occupied by too many members of Chennai’s police force is a murky one, bolstered by a flawed understanding of “Tamil culture”, unchecked sexism, and an abiding disrespect for the law itself.

But these are hardly isolated incidents. If anything, they have only served to reinforce what every woman in this city already knows: the police are more likely to harm than help. As journalist Chithira V put it to me, the security-heavy Gopalapuram neighbourhood – where the state’s CM resides – is a dangerous area, not in spite of but because of the presence of the police. Even the 20 all-women police stations in the greater Chennai area cannot effectively address the daily threats and aggravation that take place in public spaces, by members of the force itself.

Chennai is a city of fear and loathing, and the deep distrust in its sanctioned protectors is not a phantasm of urban legend. The city’s profound conservatism is in conflict with the needs of a modernizing population, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the manner in which its police relegate law and ethics in favour of their private concepts of morality.

The misogyny of the police force finds an accomplice in the unresponsiveness of Chennai’s ordinary citizenry. These instances are too omnipresent to enumerate, but one in particular, also shared by Chithira V, illustrates this pervasive attitude to chilling accuracy: some weeks ago, three women were attacked by a man with a knife on Besant Nagar beach. When they scattered, screaming, the man calmly walked away unperturbed. None of the families or couples sitting near these women paid any attention to the skirmish. The women called the police; an officer arrived, rounded up two random men, and insisted that they were the attackers. The real attacker not only went unpunished, but surely orchestrated the attack expecting this. Even in a group of three, the women were – in the city’s understanding of this word – “alone”.

So deeply embedded is the belief that one must be vigilant of the vigilantes that many women go to lengths to avoid interactions with the police, even at their own peril. A friend who was being followed by an ex-boyfriend felt she could not approach the police if the stalking became more invasive, because her former relationship with him would surely be held against her, and render her a target for humiliation and harassment. I personally leave home well before dark whenever I have planned a night out; having been questioned twice by a policeman on a bike right in front of my apartment, I changed my schedule. This is only an inconvenience, but the sinister underpinnings behind why I had to do it are hard to ignore. When my parents enquired about what the policeman was doing, they were told that a brothel was allegedly operating near the premises. There is no brothel here, as far as I know, but there is a women’s hostel.

An edited version appeared in today’s The Sunday Guardian, New Delhi.

Chennai

2010-09-21T08:13:00.000+05:30

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Woman-thrashed-inside-HC-in-presence-of-police-advocates/articleshow/6596618.cms

2010 16 Days Campaign Kit

2010-09-17T15:44:00.003+05:30

CWGL's 16 Days Campaign Kit is ready and can be accessed here. Take a look at the very useful resources.

Incidentally, this year marks 20 years of the 16 Days Campaign. Prajnya is proud to be part of this effort, in our own small way!

1st meeting

2010-09-15T13:06:00.003+05:30

Had my first official meeting in Chennai yesterday. I got to learn a little bit about the transgender community. Everybody faces violence, discrimination at one end or the other. And the best thing about it though we experience it everyday we donot realize that it is happening (0r rather refuse to realize that it can happen) to us. A word or a gesture saying "I am there" is all that is needed but guess it is getting too much to ask for these days.......This is where being a part of the Prajnya 16 days campaign can help voice out......am glad I am a part of it..its your turn now......

Self-introduction

2010-09-14T11:15:00.005+05:30

Thanks a ton, Anu and Swarna for having me on board! I am sure this is going to be a great experience for me. I am all excited about the 1st official meeting I am going to have today....all fingers crossed!
About me: I am an MSW from Nirmala Niketan, Mumbai. I was working in Mumbai with two organizations. The first one dealt with human trafficking and the second worked in the area of gender violence focusing primarily on the health sector.
I am sure it's going to be a wonderful journey ahead....looking forward to your guidance and contribution.

Kickstarting the 2010 16 Days Campaign

2010-09-01T16:33:00.002+05:30

Its that time again - when all of us at Prajnya go into overdrive as we plan this year's edition of the 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence.

It is my happy task to introduce this year's Campaign Coordinator, Namitha Joseph. We literally "ambushed" Namitha the day she landed in Chennai and we're thrilled to have her on board with us.

Namitha has a Masters in Social Work from Nirmala Nikentan in Mumbai. She has worked on projects on trafficking and sexual violence, particularly looking at the latter in the context of health care and hospital administration.

Namitha, welcome to Prajnya! The floor is yours...

Over and Out!

2009-12-31T10:23:00.004+05:30

The last day of the year, the last post for the campaign. It is exactly three weeks since the 2009 campaign ended. Despite my best intentions to "take a break", this post, a roundup of sorts, has been constantly at the back of my mind, hovering over all my holiday plans and 2010 plans!

So how did the 2009 Prajnya 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence go?

Honestly, rather well, even if I say so myself!

And here's why I think so -

1. We were reasonably successful at putting together a visible campaign, one that used public spaces appropriately, and one that genuinely tried to involve as many different groups of people as possible.
2. The majority of our programmes yielded substantive discussions, from which we're now hatching many new schemes!
3. We got several random emails, letters, smses, calls from people for whom this issue, gender violence, has real resonance.
4. Equally, we really believe there are many more people who didn't pick up the phone to call us or sit down to email us, but who read our factboxes, or saved helpline numbers.
5. Now that the campaign is over, we (and I speak for the Prajnya team) don't really feel like we're done! Lots of things to do, ideas to follow up on, people to meet. And really, thats the best takeaway we could ask for from any advocacy effort.

Personally, its been a wonderful, exciting, challenging, if occasionally nerve-wracking few months. The best thing really about the entire process has been meeting so many different, new people, many strangers who have or will become friends! Living in a city like Chennai, we tend to become complacent, and believe we already know who is interested in a given issue. It was great to discover how wrong I was!

I did have a long list of thank yous but since Swarna has beaten me to it, I won't do a repeat.

Except to say -

1. A big big thank you to the entire Prajnya team for being there - it was superb to work with such a committed team of volunteers, to know that at any point, I could pick up the phone and call at least three people and ask for help!
2. A equally big thank you to all our partners, donors and supporters. We really want and believe that this campaign should be, and is, a genuinely collective effort (not to just pander to the cliche), thanks to all of you.
3. Shyamala Rajagopalan: we couldn't have done this without you! You didn't just tolerate our incessant comings and goings (and mine, in particular!), you always always made us feel welcome! Years from now, when I look back at the campaign year, I suspect that tea and biscuits will be a recurring memory:) THANK YOU!
4. Finally, Swarna Rajagopalan. She left herself out of the campaign-makers list, but really, it's incomplete without her. Personally, I think I've been very fortunate to work with someone who is able to strike the perfect balance between always being there to advice, help, guide or admonish you, and giving you the space and freedom to find your own way and make your own mistakes. I also want to say, I'm awed by the depths of her knowledge, her ability to translate this knowledge into something useful and her endless commitment. Thank you, Swarna!

Finally, finally, to everyone who's been following Campaign Chronicle - thank you, Happy New Year and come back here in September 2010!

We'll be back then - and that is both a threat and a promise!

Many hands make... more work, light work, better work, fun work!

2009-12-31T00:13:00.002+05:30

This is a photograph of all those who contributed to making the campaign a success AND who were present on the final day. It's a photograph that misses many. But here's a who's who of this year's campaign-makers. Here's a very personal post to tell you a little about everyone and to acknowledge their work.

No thanks though, because they are Prajnya and one cannot thank oneself.

Anupama Srinivasan, our Campaign Coordinator, must go first. From conceptualising the themes that marked this year's campaign, to fundraising very successfully, to reaching out to new constituencies and partners, she had lists, and lists of lists, and schedules for making lists and following up lists that warmed the cockles of my heart! But more to the point, she got through her lists with alacrity and there were hardly ever things backlogged because they had been left unfinished. Anupama ran this year's campaign smartly, systematically and diplomatically and the result was that we were really able to build on last year's legacy and reach out to a much larger audience.

Subhashini Selvanathan, Prajnya's administrator, is integral to every part of every activity of Prajnya's. This year, her engagement with the campaign went even deeper and she was an active contributor to planning and process. She has also been the person who has got things printed, copied, bound, distributed, mailed. Without her, it is only honest to say, we would not be able to manage to do a fraction of our work a fraction as well.

Vasughi Adityan came to Prajnya in the summer but by campaign time, she had become an important member of the team. She only takes on what she can definitely accommodate in her schedule but we have learned that when she takes things on, you don't have to worry about them for one second more. The roundtable for support services providers was Vasughi's idea and she put it together in just three days!

Sweta Narayanan, a part of Prajnya's core team, moved back to India the night before our press conference and led the media outreach for Prajnya. Hamsini Ravi joined her by the fourth day of the campaign and handled press releases as if she had been doing it all her life. Because of Sweta and Hamsini, we were able to be more organised and ambitious in getting listings, stories, photos out.

Here, I want to mention Meera Srikant who volunteered to do a couple of features on the campaign and Sumita Pai who volunteered to edit. Meera wrote some of the curtain-raiser features and she also took responsibility for collecting logos from partners--a very important task that needed a responsible person. Sumita got us started on 'Call for Help.'

Perhaps the most substantive beginning we have made with this year's campaign was the Gender Violence Report, and that would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of Kavitha Muralidharan, Shalini Umachandran and Zubeda Hamid. Nandhini Parthib came on board to edit overnight. And Gynelle Alves drew the cover for us.

Kavitha also translated 'Call for Help' into Tamil for us.

Apurva, our youngest volunteer this year, kept newspaper clippings for us through the campaign.

Uma Vangal and Nandhini Shanmugham were pillars of strength, especially at the public events, with Nandhini quietly doing the things that needed doing--whether the paanai or mementos or registration or small last minute arrangements and Uma stepping up to the mike time and again to speak for Prajnya.

Nirupama Sarathy, last year's Campaign Coordinator, made the time between her travels to come in and volunteer during the campaign.

Nirupa Sundaravadanan juggled her medical practice and the needs of a small child to do the most unglamorous but essential task of the campaign--preparing, maintaing and putting into regular use, email lists. If you got an email from 'Prajnya Outreach,' it was because she sat down diligently and sent it out.

David found us at Chennai Twestival and volunteered to help us with campaign events. Checklist maestro, we really appreciated his resourcefulness, his cheerfulness and his willingness to step in and do what was needed--from stage decoration to mike checks to setting the projector and laptop.

Amrutha Rajagopalan designed all the lovely public event posters and invitations for this year's campaign. She also helped set up the Collaborative Cooking wiki and took photos at the concert. Nirupama Kapil and Tryphena Kirubakaran designed the Collaborative Cooking poster.

We had four student volunteers from the Asian College of Journalism work on the Bursting Media Bubbles post series in this blog. Thank you, and we hope you will continue to blog for us at keepingcount.wordpress.com.

This year's 'Friends of Prajnya'--those partners and supporters--who really came through for us: Dr. Prasanna of PCVC, Vidya Reddy of Tulir, Shiamala Baby of FORWORD, Lister Metropolis, Babu Jayakumar of TNIE, Seetha Ravi of Kalki and the team at Queen Mary's College.

And finally, not because we value your support and presence least, but because it goes so much beyond the campaign: Dr. Thara, Koushik Udayashankar and Shyamala Rajagopalan.

It takes a community to make a successful campaign

2009-12-28T18:04:00.001+05:30

Several individuals contributed their time and expertise to the campaign by serving as resource persons, by facilitating programmes, by performing, by teaching and by addressing participants. We could not have organised the 2009 campaign without them. Prajnya thanks them and in order to share our list of resource people with others in the community, we are posting their profiles on this blog.

AMMU JOSEPH

Ammu Joseph is an independent journalist and author based in Bangalore, writing primarily on issues relating to gender, human development and the media. She is on the international editorial board of Feminist Media Studies (Routledge), has authored and co-authored five books relating to women and media, besides contributing chapters to several other books. She is a recipient of the UNFPA-LAADLI Media Award for Gender Sensitivity 2007. She is a founder-member of the Network of Women in Media, India, and co-editor of its website. She has been on the visiting faculty of colleges in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore.

S. SOWMYA

One of the most accomplished vocalists of today, S. Sowmya learnt from the late Sangitha Kalanidhi Dr. S. Ramanathan and Smt. T. Mukta of the legendary Brinda-Muktha duo. An artiste blessed with a very good voice and a sizeable repertoire, Sowmya has performed extensively in many parts of the world. Along with K.N. Shashikiran, another popular young vocalist, she produced the first ever CD-ROM and VCD on Carnatic music. The web portal of her institution Carnatica, again founded along with Mr. Shasikiran, has become a popular destination for music-related information, products, courses and discussions.

NEYVELI R. NARAYANAN

Hailing from a family of music connoisseurs at Neyveli, R. Narayanan was initiated into the art of Mrudangam playing at the young age of seven, under the guidance of Sri S.K. Ganesa Pillai. He made his debut at the age of 11 and ever since, he has been making a mark in the field of carnatic music. Narayanan has been blessed with the rare opportunity of being one of the favourite disciples of the Mrudangam Legend Padmabushan Umayalpuram Sri K. Sivaraman. This influence has brought in a great amount of clarity, precision and perfection in Narayanan's style.

B.U. GANESH PRASAD

He had his initial training under G. Nataraj of Bangalore and S. Shankar, a famous vocalist who helped shape his style. It was under the tutorage of violin maestro V.V. Subramanyam that Ganesh Prasad acquired perfect violin technique. Ganesh’s style is basically faithful to the VVS bani and he supplements this with his knowledge gained from learning vocal music from Shri P.S. Narayanaswamy. Tonal purity, good fingering technique and fluid style of presentation are his assets. He is a recipient of many youth awards for music and is a graded artist of radio and television.

K. SRILATA

Dr. K. Srilata is Associate Professor of English at the Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras. A poet, fiction writer and translator, her debut novel Table for Four was long listed recently for the Man Asian literary prize. Her books include The Other Half of the Coconut: Women Writing Self-Respect History and an anthology of poetry titled Seablue Child. Srilata won the first prize in the All India Poetry competition 1998 organised by the British Council and the Poetry Society, India for her poem “In Santa Cruz, Diagnosed Homesick”, while her reviews have appeared in The Hindu’s Literary Review as well as in The Indian Review of Books. She has just started to blog and can be accessed at: http://srilatawriting.blogspot.com

KUTTI REVATHI

Kutti Revathi, as a contemporary poet of first rank, has been an important Tamil voice, dealing with the politics of the female body through poetry, her chosen literary form. Some of her poems, such as ‘Mulaigal’ (Breasts), have achieved iconic status both within and outside Tamil Nadu. A serious practitioner of her art, she has explored many zones of the female condition with verve, honesty and with a remarkable inventiveness in language and expression. As an engaged and committed person, she has also contributed through founding and editing a feminist journal, Panikkudam, as well as through helping younger women poets to publish their work.

SIVAKAMI VELLIANGIRI

Sivakami Velliangiri, writer-poet, has been writing from the age of 12 and has been publishing regularly since her college days. Her poems have been published in several journals like Youth Times, The Indian P.E.N, and The Literary Endeavour. She co-ordinates The British Council Poetry Circle, is the Secretary of the Chennai Poet’s Circle, and was an active member of the Madras English Association. She also moderates ‘Soulflash’, an online poetry group.

SUSAN HAWTHORNE

Susan Hawthorne is currently an Asialink Literature Resident at the University of Madras. She is a poet, aerialist and publisher and has taught creative writing for many years. Her books include gender-related fiction and non-fiction, besides five collections of poetry, including The Butterfly Effect (2005) and Earth’s Breath (2009). She has been involved in feminist activism for more than thirty years and is co-founder of the feminist press, Spinifex.

DR. PRASANNA POORNACHANDRA, PCVC

She is the Chief Executive Officer at the International foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care, an organisation that has been in existence for the last 7 years providing services to victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

A. MANGAI

A. Mangai is the pseudonym of Dr. V. Padma, who teaches English at Stella Maris College, Chennai. She has been actively engaged in Tamil theatre as an actor, director and playwright for over two decades. She has directed over fifteen plays so far, all women-centric. Her passion is to concentrate on community theatre – to make theatre the voice of the voiceless, or the marginalised. She has been one of the founder- members of Chennai Kalai Kuzhu, Shakthi, Palkalai Arangam, Voicing Silence and Marappachi. She was given the Rockefeller-Bellagio Residency for four weeks to work on her monograph on Gender and Theatre in India during March- April, 2009. She hopes that her academic, activist and artistic selves can find a vibrant intersection.

DR. T. SUMATHI

Also known as “Tamizhachi” Thangapandian, Dr. Sumathi is a poet and performer, active in politics today. She was a faculty of the English dept. of Queen Mary's college earlier.

SRIJITH

Srijith is a cinematographer, who has taken up theatre seriously and works with many organisations and colleges.

DR. SHANTHA KAMATH

Dr. Shantha is the Additional Director of Scarf. She is in charge of the Clinical Services and the residential rehabilitation centre for women. Her main interests are in rehabilitation and women’s problems.

DR. P. NALINI RAO

Dr. Nalini teaches mental health and psychiatric social work, among other subjects, at the Madras School of Social Work. She has undertaken several research studies for government and corporates, presented papers at and organised several national and international seminars. She is interested in research, working with marginalised groups and the rural sector.

DR. SHUBA KUMAR

Dr. Shuba completed her masters in Social Work from the Delhi School of Social Work and then went on to complete her training in social science and epidemiology under the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) at the University of Newcastle, Australia. While working for the India Clinical Epidemiology Network (IndiaCLEN), she undertook research on various behavioural and care and support aspects of the HIV/AIDS programme in Tamil Nadu. She is also the founder member of a non-government organisation, Samarth, focused on social science research and training.

DR. ANITA RAO

Dr. Anita is the Director of Medical Services at the TTK Hospital and is responsible for the administrative management of the medical unit of the hospital. She has been a resource person for various training programmes held at TTK Hospital as well as other organisations such as UNODC and Colombo Plan for various groups such as doctors, medical students, nurses, psychologists, social workers, etc. On July 19, 2009, she was awarded the Dr. K.S. Sanjeevi Award for the year 2009 for outstanding service to the poor and needy by CIOSA & Udavum Ullangal. Apart from various pamphlets on addiction for physicians, she has also been a contributing author for manuals produced by TTK.

SUJATA MODY

Sujata Mody is a labour rights activist who has been working with women's groups and trade unions from her early student days. She is President of Penn Thozhilalargal Sangam, working with women workers in Greater Chennai, including domestic workers, tailors and workers from other informal sectors. Besides helping women to get their entitlements through the Labour Boards set up by the TN Government, they also works to empower women and build their capacities to deal with challenges in everyday life - be it violence in the family, at work, in the community or anti-women state policies that make women vulnerable and weak. They also seek to increase wages of women workers and secure right to permanent housing and to basic health care.

GLADSTON XAVIER

Dr. Xavier is a senior lecturer in the Department of Social Work, Loyola College. He has also been practicing Social Work and Conflict transformation at the national and the international level, in the areas of forced migration, community development and conflict transformation. Since 1997, he has been working with the Organization for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation, a refugee self-help organisation that works in all the Sri Lankan Refugee camps in Tamil Nadu. His peace building work has been in the North and East of Sri Lanka, where his training since 2003 of civil society leaders, NGO staff and other community volunteers has resulted in formulating a community-based peace building model. In India, he has facilitated dialogue between conflicting churches in Nagaland and among staff of various organisations in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

USHA B.N.

Ms. Usha works as program Co-oordinator at Hengasara Hakkina Sangha, a women's rights organisation working on gender and law in Karnataka. She designs and conducts capacity building workshops and activities on Gender and Law for various groups and is also involved in conducting advocacy work with the State on laws related to women. She has also presented papers and written on women’s rights issues, besides making a documentary film, along with Sanjana C.B., on acid attacks on women in Karnataka for the campaign and struggle against acid attacks on women in Karnataka.

INDHU SUBRAMANIAM

Ms. Indhu is executive director of Hengasara Hakkina Sangha. She has worked in the area of gender and rights for the past 13 years. She conducted a study on Sexual harassment at the workplace and since has been engaged with the issue and is the external expert in sexual harassment complaints committees in different work sectors. She has co-authored a paper on the issue of sexual harassment for the Indian association of women’s studies conference in 2008. She is part of the International network ‘DAWN’ of Southern feminist activists, researchers and campaigners.

DR. JAYA ARUNACHALAM

Dr. Jaya Arunachalam is the President of Working Women's Forum (India), initiated in 1978 as a platform to benefit the poorest of women in the informal sector by promoting self-participation and leadership. When Dr. Arunachalam took it over, her alternative development model - pro-poor and pro-women in its approach, spearheaded a social movement that continues to inspire numerous women even today. Dr. Arunachalam is considered the pioneer of micro-credit and building leadership skills among thousands of poor working women throughout India. She is the president of the National Union of Working Women, a grassroots trade union of poor working class women in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and the Indian Co-operative Network for Women, conceptualised by her as an informal banking system for poor women.

Dr. Arunachalam was honoured with the Jamnalal Bajaj Award, 2009 for her outstanding contribution for the development and welfare of women and children on Nov 6, 2009 in Mumbai. She was awarded the Padma Sri in 1987 for her distinguished services among the poorest women in urban and rural areas. In 2002, Dr. Arunachalam received the ‘Stree Shakthi Puraskar’ from the Government of Tamil Nadu for her outstanding services to poor working women. Dr. Arunachalam is the recipient of many national and international awards, notable amongst them the International Activists Award and an Honorary Doctorate of the University of Lunenburg in Germany. She was the first South Asian woman member to be elected to the Governing Council of the Society for International Development, Rome. Academy of Grassroots Studies and Research of India and Rajiv Rural Development Foundation, Tirupathi presented her with Bharat Ratna Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Shakthi Award 2009 on August 20, 2009, in recognition of outstanding accomplishment in the field of women’s empowerment and sustainable development and for the services rendered to the nation and humanity at large.

Empowerment, Equity and Freedom from Violence: Lecture by Dr. Jaya Arunachalam

2009-12-28T13:39:00.001+05:30

THE PRAJNYA 16 DAYS CAMPAIGN PUBLIC LECTURE 2009

Empowerment, Equity and Freedom from Violence

Dr. Jaya Arunachalam

President, Working Women's Forum (India)

Thank you for giving me this opportunity and especially Ms. Swarna Rajagopalan for inviting me to deliver the public lecture on the significance of empowerment, equity and freedom from violence.

We in Working Women’s Forum (India) (WWF) focus on the empowerment of grassroots women through various programmes/activities. To put the activities of Working Women's Forum concisely, I would like to trace back the three decades of our work. Initiated in 1978 with 800 women, it has today grown into a social movement comprising of 12,00,000 women in three southern states in 14 branches.

We feel very gratified in our endeavour of mobilising / empowering and advocating poor women, making micro-credit as point of entry through our banking outfit i.e. Indian Co-operative Network for Women and also bringing in micro insurance and other welfare measures to benefit grassroots women. Besides, the trade union wing i.e. National Union of Working Women helps women to fight for land, labour, housing, human right violations such as female infanticide, child prostitution and child labour that affects women on a daily basis.

While focusing on the topic Violence against women, it is the most degrading aspect of treating women as inferior beings. Such violence manifests in the form of rape, dowry deaths and discrimination - the worst of them being domestic violence that occurs on a day-to-day basis. Most of these are planned atrocities affecting the dignity of women. This makes us realise that this is just to keep women in perpetual subordination, confining her within the four walls of the house and making her remain closed to the world. Condoning or ignoring such atrocities by states/societies (as often as it happens) as unimportant domestic incidence, instills not only insecurity in the minds of women but also creates permanent stumbling blocks to women’s progress in general.

Well, the story of dependence of women is as ancient as the days of ‘Manu’, the great Indian law maker, who had laid down the stringent law of Hindu social order. This great personality had to his credit a kind of codification of the unwritten ancient Hindu customs as law and has forewarned women. According to this, women are not eligible for any freedom. Pita rakshati gaumare, bhartho rakshati yauvene, viruthyena putro rakshati, na stree swadantriya arhathi”(i.e.) her father protects her in childhood, her husband protects her in youth and her son protects her in old age, a woman is never for independence.

Unfortunately, such customary laws cannot be ignored as mere fiction of a bygone era. Even today, many of these laws are alive as horrors that continue to haunt the lives of many women in several remote areas of our country making them lesser equals and dependent.

Thus violence against women is a cultural pattern in which women had no dignified place or respect as human beings. According to many religions, not only in Hinduism, women are considered and treated as objects of pleasure and not as an intellectual or rational being. This prejudice has in fact been the basis of sexual subjugation paving the way for the exploitation of women. Brainwashed by such patriarchal values for centuries, unfortunately our women too perceived that their virtue lay in being subservient, an ideal wife, a role model of socio-cultural and stereotypes of gender subordination. Thus, this is the story of women losing their identity, denied their existence as multi-faceted personalities, talents thwarted, capabilities ignored and initiatives suppressed that continues as an extension of their male counterparts.

Later with the passing of time, atrocities against women took several forms such as obsession, hatred and repugnance against girl children. This is prevalent even today among caste and class of Indian society. Thus, female feticide, child prostitution are all one side of the same coin.

Prejudice in many rural communities against girl children does not end with the killing of unborn female child in the mother’s womb. In many families, it ends up in the mortality of these female children being questioned owing to tradition bound Male Child Syndrome of the parents. In many areas the girl children is denied proper nutrition, medical care, equal opportunities or even honoured existence in the world. Taking away the rights of human species in those communities, every female child born is continuously blamed, accused and thought of as a drain in the family and therefore they have no right to exist. The irony remains that the perpetrators of such crimes are not strangers but the victim’s own family and friends.

It will be surprising that child marriages still occur, yet another atrocity practiced on very young female children denying them even their normal basic childhood. It is a practice followed in semi-tribal families in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and eastern Uttar Pradesh. What is worse is that as these children grow up, they lose track of their partner. Parents then arrange for a second marriage, ‘Nutra’, where a huge bride price is collected from the bridegroom. This is a practice that exploits the female children, as the same girl is offered to several bridegrooms for a huge sum.

The Devadasi system is a sheer exploitative practice of dedicating female children in the service of God, who later end up as prostitutes. This is a common phenomenon in some parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Despite a legal ban, such degenerated, oppressive and exploitative customs continue to flourish in the name of culture/tradition even in our modern democratic set up. Such customs condemning hundreds of young girls to a life of poverty, sexual exploitation and misery is reflective of the incompetence of the legal systems and the lack of political will. With such indifferences in communities, a revolution and change process in our societies seems distant and remote.

The burden of dowry in modern India has made many parents transact their daughters as business objects under the guise of marriage. In poorer families, the girl, sold for a price, often becomes a victim of beggary or prostitution. We are not forgetting the stories of brides, often appearing in the news everyday for being burnt for not complying with repeated demands of dowry. Dowry is not a one-time practice but the burden is carried throughout the lifetime of the bride. All of us are aware that women are going down statistically in the sex ratio. The valid reason is nothing but the result of atrocities on women and female children. Even in the 1980’s, India witnessed the occurrence of ‘Sati’ in Rajasthan.

We should not forget to mention the worst form of violence against women that manifests in the forms of rape and sexual harassment. Such violations cause both mental and physical torture, leaving the victims scarred. Often, the victims do not opt for legal recourse. As the onus of proving is on her and fearing public dishonour, these victims often leave offenders scot-free. But even in the case of few who take legal recourse, it is a prolonged legal process aggravating the pain and suffering of these victims. With an appalling rate of actual convictions, i.e., even on the small percentage of reported cases, victims are discouraged to opt for legal redemption as they would only be stigmatised socially.

Women constitute 1/3rd of the world's population and 89% of India’s workforce, most of them belonging to the unorganised sector. There is so much of discrimination, they are given only secondary treatment. Women’s subordinate position at home is reflected in the workplace too. Despite the Indian constitution guaranteeing equal rights to men and women, women are still paid discriminate wages even though their work is same as that of men or even more sometimes. Further, their contribution is equally important to production process and national development. Despite working outside, children and family form major responsibilities regardless of their crucial contribution to the family. This reminds us of a proverb - man’s work is only from 10 – 5 p.m., but women’s work is never done.

The feminist’s struggle of gender-based violence not only pertains to India and South Asia, it is also found in entire regions of developing countries such as Africa and Latin America. International conferences have focused on the experiences of less fortunate women bringing to the fore the glaring realities of female circumcision in Africa. A brutal practice inflicted on young women brings untold miseries, pain, trauma, severe medical complications, infections and even death. In these African communities, the girl children who go through female genital mutilation are between 4 and 8 years of age, which according to those communities is the age for their children to know their social roles as women. Far from being perceived as a mere superstition, it is a local custom and recognised as a health practice in remote areas of Africa even today.

The most profitable trade is trafficking of women and girls in flesh trade and forced prostitution in East Asia and Latin America where women are denied even the basic right to live as normal human beings. The systematic and organised trafficking of girls makes them dependent as inferior beings. The adolescent girls are lured by anti-social elements with a promise of employment and for a better life. They are brought into major cities and passed on to lucrative flesh trade. This happens even today, even though prostitution is deemed as illegal in many of these countries.

While the anti-social elements who practice the trade as a lucrative business become quite wealthy, the women are locked in abysmal conditions and trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty. Women are the worst sufferers in ethnic conflicts, violence and very little is heard of the sexual abuse women suffer at the hands of soldiers. These are inhuman practices that deny women’s right to control or regulate their own sexuality and safeguard their reproductive rights.

Of course, media is interested in the coverage of women but it seldom does or depict everyday struggle of women as experienced both inside and outside their homes. The media focuses mainly on sensationalism and dramatisation of repulsive and unpleasant events, rather than gender sensitive and objective presentation of hard hitting realities. In fact, the images that media presents on violence against women, particularly the portrayal of rape or sexual slavery, only depicts women and girls as objects of lust and contributes to the rise of such crimes inculcating wrong values in the minds of younger generations.

In light of the facts mentioned above, it is not an exaggeration to say that incidences of violence against women occur not only in India but all over these contemporary societies in the developing world. Such incidents have not only become rampant and gruesome but also threaten the very basic rights of women, restricting to lead a life of dignity and self-respect. The need of the hour is that women should no more think that it is their virtue to be ‘tolerant’ or ‘patient’, but fight for a conducive social environment, establish a healthy concept of equality between the sexes and make the same a reality rather than engaging themselves in proverbial patience.

Thus women must challenge a situation to over glorification of virtues of patience and endurance and fight perpetration of injustice and inequality against women. So the need of the hour is more intolerance, impatience against such social discriminations and to accelerate the pace of social change, instilling a new social order promoting genuine fraternity between both the sexes.

In Working Women's Forum (India) apart from healthcare, access to credit per se is not important. We empower women against the atrocity and violence they face. Women have to find the courage to fight. The following examples show how women members fought violence against women.

• To prevent large-scale female foeticide/ infanticide and child mortality among girl children in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu, the Forum initiated a branch in 1993 spreading awareness to the girl child on their rights to survive. They were made aware that infringing on their rights would be a punishable offence under Human Right Violations.

• In Bellary, Karnataka, through continuous awareness campaigns, the Forum initiated an advocacy initiative to fight the traditional practice of dedicating girl children to temples (devadasis) that ultimately leads to prostitution. The scenario now is that WWF has created conscious cadres within the community who would consciously scrutinise other women on this issue and act as a watch guard to inform on their activities.

• In West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, women artisans could fight against export monopolies and liquor menace.

• To describe the poor women’s struggle as a process to fight injustice in wages, around 5,000 women workers joined hands in 1988 and presented a memorandum to the Prime Minister at Vellore demanding justice towards payment of stipulated wages as per the rules of Minimum Wages Act. The Prime Minister’s intervention benefited beedi rollers - those who until then received only Rs.11 for 1000 beedi rolled were able to get Rs.21 per 1000 beedies.

• Earlier in Kanchipuram, the government’s policy assisted only male silk weavers in its credit and marketing cooperatives but not women weavers, despite them being the real weavers. Today, through the Forum’s intervention these women get the same benefits as their male counterparts.

• In addition women fought against rampant child labour, child bondage in Vellore and Kanchipuram towns in Tamil Nadu.

• In 1988 the fisherwomen of WWF in Adiramapattinam petitioned to the Prime Minister’s office regarding the desilting of a canal that was not repaired for ages, which would help them have easy access to the sea to bring the fish from the sea to the boat yard. Later, these fisherwomen fought and won the battle in the Supreme Court to access the sea for 4 days in a week and the others i.e. rich trawler owners to access only for 3 days.

• In Dindigul, there was an issue pertaining to access of the burial ground where the landlord refused to give his consent, as the path way that lead to the burial ground came under his control. The women took a long procession and gave a petition to the District commissioner who deputed the Revenue authorities to look into the matter.

• Besides these activities the Forum representatives attend /participate in various police committees and conferences. Being one of the members of such committees enables the Forum to bring to the notice of higher police authorities the grievances of grassroots women regarding violence against women.

Celebrating Defenders of Women's Rights: Citations: Pennurimai Iyakkam

2009-12-28T13:28:00.000+05:30

In 1979, a group of students and teachers founded Pennurimai Iyakkam as a movement to help underprivileged women secure justice. Today, it is one of Chennai’s best-known women’s groups and at the forefront of the fight for women’s rights with a membership base in thousands.

Counseling and dialogue, agitation and legal remedies are Pennurimai Iyakkam’s three-phase strategy for empowering women. The organisation strives to bring about social change by fighting for women’s rights; conducting campaigns and demonstrations to protest against discrimination/ violence against women; providing counseling facilities for oppressed women; and facilitating access to legal recourse.

A key component of its struggle for women’s rights includes efforts to secure basic rights and services for women living in slums such as housing, water and health.

On the occasion of International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, 2009, The Prajnya Trust takes great pride in recognising Pennurimai Iyakkam’s work for social justice and women’s human rights.

Chennai
November 27, 2009

Celebrating Defenders of Women's Rights: Citations: FORWORD

2009-12-28T13:25:00.000+05:30

Forum for Women’s Rights and Development (FORWORD) was started by Shiamala Baby in 1992, to help women reclaim their sense of identity and dignity. The founder of FORWORD, Shiamala Baby, herself survived domestic violence and has dedicated her life to help other women fight for their rights.

FORWORD works for a holistic, ‘abundant’ life for women. They provide informal education for women, life skills education programmes which are open to men and women and also conduct general awareness programs on the equality of women. FORWORD also provides counseling, undertakes advocacy and conducts regular seminars and workshops on domestic violence.

FORWORD provides informal education through coaching classes for children of disadvantaged women. Through these sessions, they impart a sense of ecological responsibility and social justice.

On the occasion of International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, 2009, The Prajnya Trust takes great pride in recognising FORWORD’s work for social justice and women’s human rights.

Chennai
November 27, 2009

Celebrating Defenders of Women's Rights: Citations: FASA

2009-12-28T13:22:00.001+05:30

A case of sexual harassment in a Chennai educational institution motivated Sarah Matthew to establish FASA, as the Feminist Association for Social Action is better-known.

FASA is primarily an advocacy organisation. In its early years, FASA was active in mobilising public opinion on the issue of sexual harassment and initiating efforts to bring about transformation in legal provisions on domestic violence.

FASA continues to organise workshops to educate women on their legal options, especially in cases of domestic violence and sexual harassment. They offer advice on how to access information and take legal recourse.

In addition, FASA provides vocational training to rural women to help them augment their incomes. FASA also reaches out to young women in rural areas through the ‘Selvi’ project for personality development.

On the occasion of International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, 2009, The Prajnya Trust takes great pride in recognising FASA’s work for social justice and women’s human rights.

Chennai
November 27, 2009

Celebrating Defenders of Women's Rights: Citations: CWDR

2009-12-28T13:21:00.000+05:30

Centre for Women’s Development and Research (CWDR) was started in 1993 by three women activists who felt the need for a platform to help address the problems of women in the unorganised sector.

What started out as an organization working in five Thiruvanmiyur slums to impart human rights training has gradually grown into the voice of numerous women domestic workers across Chennai.

‘Manushi’ and ‘Snehidhi’ are CWDR’s initiatives for women domestic workers and adolescent girls in slums. These initiatives offer counselling, leadership training, awareness of gender issues, education and training in life skills. Improving the lives of single women is a significant element of CWDR’s agenda.

Advocacy and lobbying with the government form a large component of CWDR’s work. They also impart leadership training to women in panchayats and ward members. CWDR has been pivotal in getting domestic workers appointed to the Tamil Nadu Domestic Workers Welfare Board.

On the occasion of International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, 2009, The Prajnya Trust takes great pride in recognising CWDR for its work for social justice and women’s human rights.

Chennai
November 27, 2009

2009 Campaign PR (10/12):Public Lecture by Jaya Arunachalam

2009-12-12T14:27:00.002+05:30

Chennai, December 10: “ Rape is the worst form of violence against women,” expressed renowned social activist and women’s rights crusader, Padmashri Dr.Jaya Arunachalam at a public lecture titled, “ Empowerment, Equity and Freedom from violence”, held here on Thursday. “Rape leaves the victim scarred, and they often don’t approach legal systems for support and action as the onus is often on her for proof,” she added.

“The media inculcates wrong values with respect to gender violence,” the Jamnalal Bajaj Awardee further added. The media is not gender sensitive, and depicts women as objects of lust while portraying violence against women, thereby increasing chances of gender violence, she opined.

Dr.Jaya said that violence against women acts as permanent road blocks in the socio-economic progress of women. “There is no exaggeration in the number of incidents of violence against women reported. They are indeed increasing and becoming more gruesome. Such violence threatens the basic rights of women,” she emphasized. Gender violence manifests itself in many ways, through the dowry system, devadasi system, and through trafficking of women, she said reinforcing that it has an averse effect in economic empowerment.

Organized by Prajnya, a Chennai-based non profit centre, the lecture brought an end to 16 days of campaigning against gender violence, that began on 25^th of November. This is the second year in a row that the campaign has been held. “This year the campaign has been held in multiple formats such as workshops, symposiums and concerts, in order to appeal to different groups of people,” said Anupama Srinivasan, Campaign Coordinator, “We hope that the campaign will trigger longer conversations on gender-based violence,” she added.

"Burst Media Bubbles:" Behind Closed Doors

2009-12-09T21:03:00.003+05:30

“He suddenly went mad and started beating me,” sobbed my maid Pushpa on a bright Monday morning. I patted her back awkwardly and glanced at my watch. This was almost a daily morning ritual and I was already ten minutes late for class. I would have to rush.

“I’m buying your mom a Titan Raaga watch for her birthday,” my dad told me over the phone. After I had suitably ‘ohhed’ and ‘aahed’ over the idea, I turned my attention back to an important writing assignment. As I bit my lip and searched for inspiration to write, a thought hit me out of the blue. How different the lives of two women could be. It seemed rather ironical. There was my mother with a loving husband and two healthy children, and probably the only time she had been mildly worried was when my dad decided to go on an African Safari. And then there was my maid. Her life often seemed like a ‘Kollywood ‘movie and not a very good one at that.

As I ‘googled’ domestic violence, the WHO site http://www.who.int/gender/violence/en/ popped up. A WHO's World Report on Violence and Health notes that, "one of the most common forms of violence against women is that performed by a husband or male partner.” This type of violence is frequently invisible since it happens behind closed doors. Moreover, legal systems and cultural norms often do not treat it as a crime, but rather as a "private" family matter or a normal part of life.

I was in shock. With a warm and loving family like mine, I simply can’t envisage dealing with such a situation. What would I do? How would I react? I cannot imagine my father, brother or uncle hurting a woman in the family under any provocation. Why was Pushpa’s life so different and why did she put up with it? As a barrage of questions rose in my mind, I realized that I had not been very sensitive to her that morning. As pages of grim statistics and heart wrenching stories popped up on my computer, I decided that even if I couldn’t be empathetic towards Pushpa’s situation, from tomorrow I would at least be a little more sympathetic.

Call for Help: A Prajnya Listing

2009-12-09T20:42:00.001+05:30

When faced with a person in need, most of us have no concrete idea of where to refer them. On Day 15 of the 2009 Campaign, we release a listing we have been working on of Chennai service providers who provide support to women in distress.

Some are 24 hour helplines, some shelter services and some offer other counseling.

We hope you will circulate this list widely so that it is available where there is need, at the moment of need.

2009 Campaign PR (7/12 & 8/12):Gender Sensitisation & Workplace Sexual Harassment: A Training of Trainers

2009-12-09T18:17:00.002+05:30

Chennai: It is often an issue that is constantly pushed under the carpet in sleek glass and steel buildings. But studies that have been conducted show that Workplace Sexual Harassment is a gnawing problem in today’s corporate world. As part of their 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence, Prajnya, a Chennai-based centre for research, networking and public education, in partnership with Avtar I-Win, conducted a 2-day workshop on Gender Sensitization and Workplace Sexual Harassment, here on Monday and Tuesday.

Facilitated by Usha BN and Indhu Subramaniam from Bangalore-based Hengasara Hakkina Sangha, the workshop threw light on various facets of gender, sexuality and harassment, while elaborating on the difference between sex and social constructs, myths on sexual harassment and boundaries of sexual expression. Role play exercises, focus group discussions, presentations and visual aids were some of the elements used to steer the workshop on the first day. “There is a huge responsibility on employers, to help minimise gender bias in the workplace,” said Indhu. One needs to understand sexuality, power and gender before orienting themselves on sexual harassment laws, she added.

The second day of the workshop called for enhanced participation from the delegates, as they were required to present solutions to case studies and brainstorm on the legal aspects of sexual harassment in work places. “Cases of sexual harassment are complex as there are caste and class variables attached to them, which makes dealing with them difficult,” said Usha. “There is a need to recognize situations where sexual harassment may potential arise,” she explained.

The vibrant and participative audience, included human resources professionals, team managers and social workers. “We must not stop discussing this issue after this workshop. We will advocate for more follow-up sessions and guidance to set up Sexual Harassment Complaints’ Committee in our own offices,” expressed a participant.

2009 Campaign PR ( 6/12):Maaruvom, Maatruvom:Serndhu Sidhika oru sandarpam

2009-12-09T18:12:00.003+05:30

Chennai, December 6: Prajnya, a Chennai-based centre for research, networking and public education, organised a public forum ‘Maaruvom, Maatruvom’ as part of their 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence here on Sunday.

The forum, conceptualised in partnership with Kalki, was moderated by poet and political activist Thamizhachi Thangapandian. Speakers discussed a range of issues including marital equations leading to household violence, the need to educate and sensitise children from a young age, traditional gender roles and the adverse effects of substance abuse on a marriage.

“Students should be given legal literacy,” said Prof. Bharathi, Asst. Prof. of History at Pachayappa's College. Advocate Sumathi highlighted the difficulties that emotional violence imposed on women. “A woman does not find a refuge even in her maternal home,” she pointed out. In a patriarchal setup, violence is accepted as part of the marriage.

The forum also discussed the role of media in portraying women and gender violence. “Women are not women's enemies; society indoctrinates us to think so,” said poet and activist Thilakabama. R. Natraj IPS insisted on the need to understand domestic violence from a judicial perspective. Filmmaker Vasanth, who recently made ‘Satham Podhadey’ on domestic violence, spoke about underlying attitudes of violence being indicative of masculinity and expressed the need for gender violence to be made a matter of shame.

Seetha Ravi, Editor of Kalki, who was also present, said gender violence was as important a problem as poverty or illiteracy. The forum discussed practical solutions to gender violence on individual, familial and societal levels. “We must also think beyond the domestic situation to others. Women's rights extend beyond mainstream domestic situations and domestic violence,” said Thamizhachi.

Other speakers included script writer Bhaskar Shakthi, psychiatrist Dr. Rudhran, Bharathi Chandramouli, and student Rizwana Bhanu.

2009 Campaign PR (4/12):Mental Health & Gender Violence: A symposium

2009-12-09T18:03:00.004+05:30

Chennai: “Violence against Women has profound implications on mental health which are often ignored, it is a pervasive social malady with severe public health implications,” said Dr.Shantha Kamath, a psychiatrist at a Symposium on Mental Health and Gender Violence held at the Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF), here on Friday.

Organised jointly by SCARF and Prajnya, a Chennai-based centre for research and networking and public education, the symposium reinforced the correlation between gender violence and mental illness through multiple presentations by psychiatrists, researchers and other experts in mental health care and rehabilitation.

In a study conducted, 64% of mentally ill women were found to have been victims of domestic violence at some point in their lives. “Prolonged exposure to violence of any sort causes physiological damage to the brain, resulting in physical, emotional, psychological and behavioural problems in children” said Dr. V. Jayanthini.

There was also a strong linkage found between alcohol and other forms of substance abuse and violence against women. “Under the influence of alcohol, the actions of a husband are often excused by his wife. In fact, domestic violence in many parts of the country is not considered a crime but a part and parcel of marital life,” said Dr. Anita Rao, Director of Medical Services, TTK Hospital, who spoke on gender violence and substance abuse.

Dr. Shuba Kumar, Founder of SAMARTH, and a Social Science researcher, highlighted distinct patterns in domestic violence, from a study conducted across the length and breadth of the country. “The prevalence of mental abuse due to domestic violence is found more in cases when a woman’s job and income is higher than those of her husband’s,” she pointed out.

Chaitali Shetty of the Banyan also spoke of the distinctive rehabilitation patterns among rural and urban women, and expressed that rural women found more acceptance in their households after recovering from their illnesses. “The most common mental illnesses among victims of domestic violence are depression and suicidal tendencies,” she observed.

The symposium was chaired by Dr. Nalini Rao from the Madras School of Social Work, and was organised as part of the Prajnya 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence.

Prajnya -Campaign Against Gender Violence 2009!

2009-12-08T19:06:00.001+05:30

Prajnya -Campaign Against Gender Violence 2009!

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2009 Campaign PR (2/12 & 3/12):Exploring Gender Violence through theatre

2009-12-07T20:40:00.001+05:30

For some 20 odd girls from Queen Mary’s College, Wednesday and Thursday have been about rediscovering their bodies, differentiating male gaze and societal gaze from what they really want, and in general dabbling in theatre with facilitators Mangai, Sumathi and Srijith from the Marappachi Trust.

“The workshop was largely about tapping collective experience, and providing a space for perceptions on body,” said Mangai. Exercises included role plays, body warm-ups, and even mock fashion shows. It was learning by doing, as the girls themselves realised after some exercises that it was largely patriarchal laws that governed many rules about the female body.

Even puppetry, recitation, story telling and monologues were used to get some key points across on issues like dowry and skin colour. The workshop culmininated on Thursday evening, as the girls split into groups and presented three sketches on various facets of violence against women, including female infanticide and forced marriage. That, “Women’s rights is Human rights” was the take home message at the end of the workshop.

The two-day workshop was part of the 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence organised by Prajnya, a Chennai-based centre for public education, networking and research. “This year, many of our programmes revolve around popular art forms like theatre, poetry and music,” said Anupama Srinivasan, Campaign Coordinator, Prajnya.

2009 Campaign PR (1/12):Public Health and Gender Violence

2009-12-07T20:38:00.001+05:30

Health care professionals – doctors, nurses and others – must be equipped with the skills and the right attitude to handle cases related to gender and sexual violence. This was the theme of a workshop on “Public Health and Gender Violence”, held at Omayal Achi College of Nursing on Tuesday. Facilitated by Prajnya, a Chennai-based non-profit centre for research, public education and networking as part of its 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence, the workshop was jointly conducted by Dr. Prasanna Poornachandra of International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care (PCVC) and Nancy Veronica Thomas of Tulir - Centre for the Prevention & Healing of Child Sexual Abuse.

The four-hour session was interactive and included both presentations and anecdotal references to illustrate how and why gender violence is relevant for health care professionals. “The workshop was an attempt to sensitise nursing students on the importance of both physiological and psychological care for victims of gender violence,” said Nancy. “Nurses are the one-point contact in the case of a medical emergency, and have an important role to play in the case of a sexually abused patient,” she added.

The health implications of the various forms of gender violence are many, and include injuries, broken bones, psychological illnesses like neurological disorders, depression, anxiety and long term physiological diseases like arthritis, blood pressure, heart problems and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs). “The role of a health care professional in a gender violence incident is four-fold, and includes: identifying, assessing, documenting and educating,” said Dr. Prasanna during the session. The social costs of gender violence were also discussed at the workshop.

2009 Campaign PR (30/11):Rebuilding lives, Supporting Survival

2009-12-07T20:35:00.001+05:30

Chennai: “Domestic Violence is the most common form of gender violence,” said a participant at “Rebuilding Lives, Supporting Survival: A Roundtable for Service Providers”, held at the Madras Terrace House here on Monday. The roundtable was organised to bring together service providers who work with victims and survivors of violence, as part of the 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence organised by Prajnya. The participants included representatives from organisations such as PCVC, Vishranti, Sahodari, Centre for Development and Women’s Studies, FORWORD and Sahodari.

The participants ascertained that domestic violence included both physical and verbal aspects, and cut across class, caste and religion. “That domestic violence is prevalent only among the lower castes is a very big myth,” opined a representative. A recent trend that came up for discussion was economic abuse. “Economic freedom is hardly found even among well employed women. It is one of the focal points for further mental and physical abuse,” expressed a participant. “Alcohol and tobacco play a major role in domestic violence,” added another participant.

The participants also spoke of the various services their organizations offered including counselling, shelter homes, rehabilitation, sensitisation, training programmes and job placements. In a unique initiative of sensitising an entire community, one of the organizations has worked with specific socio-economic groups such as auto drivers. Heightened awareness and public campaigns aimed at children and adolescents were felt to be the need of the hour in addressing this issue.

A common problem faced by most organisations is that victims don’t come forward to declare their problems, because of social taboo. “In our culture, violence against women is looked at as a private problem,” said a representative. Some of the common problems of distress that is found among gender violence victims include low self esteem, a neglected childhood, lack of parental support, etc.

Prajnya, a Chennai-based non-profit centre for research, networking and public education will launch a directory of service providers on 9 of December, the penultimate day of the 16 Days Campaign. This directory will include information about specific services as well as relevant contact information.

2009 Campaign PR (29/11):Collaborative cooking: Recipes against VAW

2009-12-07T20:31:00.001+05:30

Ever wished you could whip up a magic dish that could destroy all the evils in the world? Well, here’s your chance to suggest ingredients to counter violence against women. From self defense training to gender neutral textbooks and banning gender violence in movies and television soaps, there are scores of ways in which we can sensitise ourselves and others around us.

Prajnya, a Chennai-based non-profit centre for research, networking and public education has launched an initiative, “Collaborative Cooking: Recipes against VAW”, to put together a giant recipe to end violence against women. All you have to do is log onto http://prajnya-16days.wikispaces.com/Recipes+against+VAW and add your recipe or ingredient.

Recipes can also be dropped off at paanais in Planet Yumm outlets at Spencer Plaza and Besant Nagar and in the traveling paanai, at the campaign’s public programmes.

Collaborative Cooking is an initiative of the Prajnya 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence, which began 25 November and ends 10 December. To find out more, visit www.prajnya.in/16days.htm.

2009 Campaign PR (28/11):Not silence, but verse: Poetry reading

2009-12-07T20:25:00.004+05:30

As part of its 16 Days against Gender Violence Campaign, Prajnya, a Chennai-based centre for research, networking and public education, held a poetry reading titled, “ Not Silence but Verse” at a bookstore Full Circle, here on Saturday.

Poets Susan Hawthorn, Sivakami and “Kutti” Revathi read out some of their work to a spell bound audience. While feminism was the recurring theme in each of the three poets’ works, it was the distinctive approach that each had that made the reading an engrossing one.

Moderating the reading, Professor K.Srilatha from IIT-Madras said, “Feminist poetry is like a double edged sword. Pointing outwards, the sword speaks out at the propogators of violence and those who cause hurt to women, however, pointing inwards, it is like a surgical knife- that heals and soothes.”

Susan Hawthord, a feminist activist and poet from Australia spoke about her interest in the ways in which women were demonised, much of her work revolves around this sphere. Her poem about women prisoners, “In the prisons” struck a chord with the audience. “Women find themselves criminalized for who they are and not always for what they have done,” she said.

Sivagami who is also secretary of the Chennai Poets Circle won the hearts of the audience with her passionate recitation of some of her poems like “An Unaccustomed Custom” and “The Doom of Silence”. Much of her poetry were from scenes she had witnessed in real life, or things she had read about. “ If I don’t read anything, I tend to not find anything to write about!” she confessed.

Tamil Poet ‘Kutti’ Revathi’s poems were a revelation. Mostly revolving around the politics of the female body, her poems have always been subjected to controversy and criticism. “A woman’s body takes the shape of the structure that men allot,” she opined quoting examples from advertising and films.

Earlier, a 2-hour long creative writing workshop held for college students was facilitated by K. Srilatha. It aimed at triggering thought processes and ideas for fiction and poetry writing.

2009 Campaign PR (27/11): Celebrating women, all the way

2009-12-07T18:57:00.004+05:30

Chennai: November 27: It was an occasion to celebrate women all the way. A recital in praise of womanhood and organisations working in the area of women’s rights marked Prajnya’s ‘In Concert: Celebrating defenders of women’s rights’ musical evening held in Chennai on Friday.
The concert was organised as part of Prajnya’s 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence. Representatives from four women’s organisations – Centre for Women’s Development and Research, Forum for Women’s Rights and Development, Feminist Association for Social Action and Pennurimai Iyakkam – were felicitated for their contribution to social justice and women’s human rights. Their work over the years was highlighted in a short presentation prior to the concert.

The event then took a musical turn as eminent vocalist S. Sowmya rendered compositions paying tribute to womanhood. Though she followed the traditional structure of a carnatic recital, she chose songs of Bharatiyar, Devi and women composers in keeping with the theme of the event. Describing her association with Prajnya, she said: “I am a little child as far as my involvement with Prajnya is concerned, but I am an active child.”
Lauding the efforts of Prajnya, Bhavani of FASA said the organisation was very innovative in its honouring of the women defenders, as the representatives of each organisation felicitated each other.

Members of the public who attended the concert contributed ‘ingredients’ into the ‘paanai’ in keeping with Prajnya’s ‘Collaborative Cooking: Recipes against Violence Against Women’ initiative.

2009 Campaign PR (26/11): Accounting for accuracy - reporting on gender violence

2009-12-07T18:39:00.008+05:30

Chennai, November 26: How does one report a case of gender violence without sounding sensational, callous or careless? Why do certain crimes get reported over some others? These were just few of the questions discussed at the ‘Reporters’ Roundtable: Gender Violence and the Media’ organised by Prajnya, a non-profit think-tank, in Chennai on Thursday.
The roundtable, held as part of Prajnya’s 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence, had mediapersons debating norms in reporting cases of gender violence. The session was mediated by Ammu Joseph, a Bangalore-based independent journalist.
Ms. Joseph writes on issues relating to gender, human development and the media. She is a recipient of the UNFPA-LAADLI Media Award for Gender Sensitivity 2007 and a founder-member of the Network of Women in Media, India.

In her short talk prior to the discussion, Ms. Joseph pointed out numerous drawbacks in existing media coverage of gender violence such as lack of accuracy, consistency, insensitivity and speculation. The media, she said, tended to veer between routinising violence against women to sensationalising reports.
The participants discussed the lack of a clear definition of gender violence, both globally and in Indian laws on domestic violence. The roundtable also drew attention to the pressures of competition among media houses in getting to the story ‘first’ and the packaging of news as entertainment. This often led to inaccuracies, ‘single-source’ reports on gender violence and journalists flouting rules on sensitive reporting.

The participants felt that the focus needed to shift from the victim of a crime to the perpetrator. They also mutually agreed that to have a greater impact, follow-ups and trend stories linking the crime to the bigger picture of gender violence were crucial.
The session yielded practical suggestions for reporting on stories of gender violence.

2009 Campaign PR (25/11): Fighting domestic violence, together

2009-12-07T16:23:00.008+05:30

Chennai, November 25: “We should not let ourselves be controlled by men and should spread the word about domestic violence in any way we can,” said Suguna. She was one of the sixty-five women from Self-Help Groups across the city who attended the ‘Responding to domestic violence’ workshop organised by Prajnya, in association with the International Foundation for Prevention of Crime and Victim Care (PCVC) and Sornammal Educational Trust on Wednesday.

Discussion, queries, answers and suggestions dominated Day One of Prajnya’s 16-day campaign against gender violence. The interactive session covered a range of topics such as the components of domestic violence, different forms of violence within the family, forms of threat and control and how affected women could speak up against it. Male chauvinism, archaic traditions and a male-dominated outlook in parenting style focussing on the preferences and dictates of the father of the family were discussed as contributing to the prevalence of domestic violence.
The importance of trust in a relationship and mutual respect for each other’s feelings and opinions were highlighted over the two-hour session. “The solution to a case of domestic violence is not by abandoning the husband or the family; it is to learn how to face it,” Bhuvana, Welfare Officer, PCVC, told the women gathered at the SET Centre at Vyasarpadi. A large part of the session also revolved around the effect of domestic violence on children within the family, in terms of adversely affecting their social behaviour and concentration and performance in school.

Parimala, a participant, felt it was the responsibility of women aware of the problem to intervene and help others suffering from violence. Women were also informed about PCVC’s 24-hr helpline 43111143 over which they could personally speak to a counsellor to discuss their problems. “This session has made many women aware of the existence of the helpline, which will be useful to them,” said K. Murali, Project Manager, Vyasarpadi Project Area.
The women also dropped off their ideas on how to combat domestic violence into a ‘paanai’ as part of Prajnya’s Collaborative Cooking initiative. Participation certificates were awarded to the women at the end of the session.

2009-12-06T22:31:00.013+05:30

DAY TWELVE - 'MAARUVOM, MAATRUVOM!'

Day 12 of the campaign was all about expressing what you thought about gender violence. Opinion. Argument. Rebuttal. Everything matters!

The 'Maaruvom Maatruvom' public forum brought together people from all walks of life, from students to prominent people, who animatedly debated gender violence and related issues.Speakers discussed a range of issues including marital equations leading to household violence, the need to educate and sensitise children from a young age, traditional gender roles and the adverse effects of substance abuse on a marriage.
A range of views made for a very interesting and informative session.

16 Days Campaign Voices: Prajnya

2009-12-06T09:59:00.005+05:30

Cross-posted from the Centre for Women's Global Leadership website.

"Voices from the 2009 16 Days Campaign: Prajnya"

Over the 16 Days, we have 16 different programmes, each with a different partner (including educational institutions, other not-for-profits, civil society groups, corporates), in 16 locations across the city and in cyberspace. Each programme is tailor-made and designed for a specific group of people; the majority of them call for active participation. Our formats include workshops, symposia, a poetry reading, training programmes and an open forum, among others.

We’ve tried to maintain a balance between programmes for specific groups and those for the “general public”. In actuality, the latter have been hardest to conceptualise: what will this abstract group of the “general public” find interesting, exciting, a worthwhile activity to participate in? We’ve found some answers, or so we hope: a celebratory concert, an open mic session and a collaborative cooking exercise (adapted from takebackthetech.org) to construct a giant recipe against VAW.

I must emphasise that Prajnya is not a service provider organisation; we ourselves do not offer counselling or support services for those who have experienced gender violence. Our main objective therefore is to facilitate sustained conversations between professionals in various fields, by creating a platform for debate and expression. One of our closed programmes, for instance, will bring together representatives from organisations that offer support services, to discuss the daily challenges that they face.

We’re also keen to reinforce the idea that we cannot look at gender violence in isolation, and must consider its consequences. Through the campaign, we are looking to reinforce the irrefutable linkages between gender violence and public health, through a training programme for nursing students and a symposium on mental health and gender violence.

Apart from the 16 programmes, we have planned several information initiatives as part of Prajnya’s campaign. In association with our media partners, we will disseminate information about helpline numbers, shelters, safe-houses and legal aid centres. On the penultimate day of the campaign, we intend to release an easily accessible directory of service providers.

This year, we’ve also taken our first baby steps in initiating Prajnya’s research agenda on gender violence, through the publication of a pilot study, “Gender Violence in India: a Prajnya Report”. We hope to considerably build on this in the coming years, through a sustained research agenda that can then help shape the advocacy efforts.

What impact do we hope this campaign will have? For us, making an impact means three things. One, obviously, we reach out to larger and larger numbers of people through the campaign, people who have never discussed or thought about gender violence. Two, we really hope that people who are living with abuse everyday start identifying their experience as violence and not as punishment they deserve. This is why we have public programmes as well as focused training and dialogue sessions. Three, we stop talking about gender and sexual violence through euphemisms and use the real words: we say the word rape; we say street sexual harassment and not eve-teasing.

Despite the increasing visibility of crimes against women, despite the fact that most of us know someone who knows someone who has been abused, people still ask us: why are you doing this campaign? Is this (gender violence) really a problem? And in a sense, that has become our catchphrase for the year: we do this campaign because people ask us if gender violence is really a problem.

I must admit that through the months of planning for this year’s campaign, we’ve managed to all but put together a wish-list for next year! Even 16 days doesn’t seem enough to do everything we want: I suppose we are just greedy. So, on 25th November 2009, all the very best to all of us! And don’t forget to participate in our online initiatives, wherever you are!

Burst Media Bubbles: Role models or Eye candy?

2009-12-06T05:09:00.003+05:30

Much as with television, video games can confine women in many ways as well. One of the most noticeable elements of many video games is not really so much stereotypes about women’s roles, but the way they are presented as sex objects. The sensuous body of Lara Croft, the female protagonist, can be viewed nude on many websites. Even though she is not a real woman, she is idolized and made into an unrealistic picture of how perfect she can be.
For teenage boys, she represents the perfect woman who is impossibly beautiful. And for the teenage girls, she is the role model with a perfect body that any normal woman would hope for. Thus boys and girls are led to idolizing a figment of imagination, thus making the normal woman look dull and lifeless in comparison. Further, violence and sexiness was paired more often with females in video games than violence and muscular physiques for male characters.

Video games have come a long way in terms of participation of women in the makings of a game, but it still has a lot to learn on being sensitive towards its portrayal of women.

Exploring Gender Violence through Theatre

2009-12-04T20:38:00.002+05:30

Catwalks. Rhyme. Couplets. Role plays. Skits.Puppetry.

Wednesday & Thursday was about letting go, rediscovering bodies and staring back at the male gaze for 23 chirpy girls from Queen Mary's College.

Mangai, Srijith and Sumathi from Marappachi Trust were the star facilitators as some of the girls discovered a hidden talent: acting!