RUNNING SAFE
by Meera Srikant
Preeti is a Professor in Chemical
Engineering & the Chairperson, Women's Forum, at IIT Madras. She has a PhD
in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has
worked as Assistant and Associate Professor at IIT Bombay. A life-time running
addict, Preeti participates in several marathons and half marathons through the
year. She is also on the organising committee of The Wipro Chennai Marathon,
2014, and a member of the vibrant Chennai Runners club. She is passionate about
books, running, women's issues, and math, and is forever being put in her place
by her 10-year old daughter (and resident critic). She shares why Prajnya
campaign is important to her..
Why
is this issue important to you?
I have specifically chosen to concentrate
on the issue of raising awareness on safety on the streets for the increasing
number of women runners we have in our midst. I am an extremely passionate
runner, and as part of the organising team of several running events, I have
discovered that one big reason women hesitate to get out into the open air for
their exercise is that they feel unsafe. I have lived in several cities in the
US and India, and have always managed to find the opportunity to enjoy the
primal experience that running is, and I want to spread that joy. On a somewhat
parallel note, as a professor, I also hope that my participation will enthuse
my students, the younger generation, to come out and take up these issues and
use their boundless energy and intelligence to come up with solutions.
What
is it you feel most strongly about?
I want to feel safe, and free, and happy. I
love my adopted city Chennai. I feel like it has a certain something, hard to
put into words. The weather is terrible, and there are so many annoyances, but
still, it has this character that I love - an unexpected congruence of the
traditional and modern. I strongly feel that it has the potential to show the
rest of the country, the world, how a metropolis ought to be. I want to make
that happen - in my own small way - by ensuring that it is safe for all of us,
to, say, enjoy a sweaty morning run in the semi-darkness of dawn, if we so
wish, in various parts of this beautiful city.
Tell
us about your activity and what you hope to do with it
First, a small group of us will conduct a
Safety Audit in the area that we frequent a lot (Alwarpet), and populate the
SafetiPin app with this information, from an early morning runner/walker
perspective. Second, I have put together a small FB/Twitter campaign with the
tag #RunSafe that will (hopefully!) get people talking about various issues
they have faced in the past, and what solutions they think are possible. There
are a handful of safety issues that are not exclusive to women, and a bit more
to do with being on foot in roads that are increasingly taken over by vehicles,
hopefully we will talk about that as well. Finally, I hope that towards the end
of the campaign, there will be an opportunity to implement at least a few of
the suggestions that emerge, and in addition to talking about it, demonstrate
some action.
Three
things you would suggest to keep these individual actions going
I think involving the City administration
in this activity is key, obviously. I am confident that they will be
supportive.
I also feel that every institution could
and should commit to examining their environs from a safety perspective, and
individuals can champion this, perhaps as a New Year pledge.
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