Women Safety- Something which should be discussed.

 

What are we discussing?

   Women’s Safety in India

      Biggest challenge in tackling the issues 

     Measures taken by Indian Government 

     Best practices that can be adopted from other countries or from any state of India 

     When I say women aren't safe. There will come a lot of opinions. Some may say women are still not safe, some may say the world has evolved and progressed, so claiming that women aren't safe is a myth. Women are empowered, independent and can fight for herself. So there is no need of talking about it. 

      I personally believe that the ideas and belief and the soul of women has empowered truly and that has led her to touch skies and be a star in educational, economic, political fields. But physically the body of women is still a thing to be scared of. As woman, I might not feel bad if someone admires my thoughts, criticises my work, abuses my beliefs but the one thing which will shake me off would me someone touching me without consent. One thing which will traumatize me would be someone forcefully holding me and not letting me go. And when we think in that way, I would loudly claim WOMEN ARE NOT SAFE! 

      

      Why is it still important to discuss this?

The world has entered into a new millennium but from the dawn of civilization till date, the women of the patriarchal society of India continues to be oppressed and ill-treated. She is dependent, weak, exploited and faces gender discrimination in every sphere of life.

The gender based violence that threatens the well- being, dignity and rights of women extends across social, cultural, economic and regional boundaries.

Women’s safety in india

Statistics:

In the year 2021, India ranked 140th out of 156 countries in a World Economic Forum report assessing gender inequality worldwide. The sobering reality is further underscored by the fact that the country witnessed a staggering 13.2% increase in overall crimes against women in 2021 when compared to the previous year, with a total of 4,28,278 registered cases. The statistics are disconcerting, painting a bleak picture of a nation grappling with gender-based violence and glaring gender disparities.

Causes:

In a world striving for progress and equality, India finds itself at a crossroads when it comes to addressing one of its most pressing challenges - women's safety. The crimes encompass a wide spectrum of brutality, ranging from rape, molestation, acid attacks, cruelty by husbands and their relatives, to domestic violence, among others.

Predominantly, the origins in deeply ingrained gender bias and inequality, exacerbated by the dearth of educational opportunities and a consequential lack of economic and social participation for women leads to crimes against women.

The challenges faced by the Indian administration in tackling the issues related to women's safety in India can be:

To start with the biggest challenge, as a woman what I feel and firmly believe is the cause of failure to tackle the crimes is the glorified objectification of women by media, series, movies, plays, slangs etc. It has now become a culture and with the film industries glorifying it for entertainment has given the people a legal check to objectify women as per their convenience. Perhaps limiting this would be a huge step to take forward.

Further, the challenges are as follows:

   Underrepresentation of Women in Administrative and Law Enforcement Roles: According to the Data on Police Organizations report, published in 2017 by the Bureau of Police Research and Development in India,  women comprise only 7.28% of the total Indian police force. While women’s representation in the police has been growing in recent years, the pace remains slow. They made up only 10.5 percent  of all police officers in the country as of January 01, 2021.

  Inadequate Reforms in Policing Infrastructure:  The police-population ratio, currently 192 policemen per lakh population, is less than what is recommended by UN i.e. 222 policemen per lakh population. 

  Underreported cases: An estimated 99.1% of sexual violence cases are not reported. Even if one excludes marital rape and assault from the analysis, the extent of reporting sexual violence is still small. Only about 15% of sexual violence committed by others (someone other than the current husband) is reported to the police.

Need:

Addressing the pressing issue of women's safety in India demands a multifaceted and comprehensive approach.

1. Cultural and Societal Shift: Challenge gender bias and violence through a shift in societal mindset and extensive awareness campaigns.

2. Inclusive Law Enforcement: Urgently reform law enforcement to be responsive, sensitized to women's challenges, and diverse.

3. Privacy and Comfort: Improve police station conditions for secure reporting with hygiene and privacy; ensure the presence of female officers.

4. Cultural Transformation: Break the culture of silence, support survivors, and establish a system safeguarding rights and dignity.

Measures taken by Government:

Here are the key measures taken by the Indian government to ensure women's safety,

1. Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005

2. National Commission for Women (NCW)

3. Mission Shakti Program

4. Swadhar Greh Scheme

5. Sakhi – One-Stop Centers

6. Digital Shakti Campaign

7. Ujjawala Scheme

8. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Initiative

9. Nirbhaya Fund

Additionally, to promote gender equity in policing:

1. Reserving 33% of positions for women in Union territories

2. Advising states to pursue legislative action for gender balance in police

3. Establishment of the Women Safety Division within the Ministry of Home Affairs

4. Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) for distress calls

5. Safe City Projects for urban safety with enhanced surveillance and technology

6. Panic buttons on public transport and ‘she toilets’

7. Women's desk in all police stations

These measures reflect the government's commitment to improving the security and safety of women in India.

Different strategies by different countries to ensure women’s safety:

1.      Community Policing and Foot Patrols (United Kingdom): Encouraging police officers to engage with the community, conduct foot patrols, and build trust can deter crime and provide a sense of security.

2.      Women-Only Transportation (Japan and Mexico):  Introducing women-only cars or buses during peak hours can reduce incidents of harassment and assault on public transportation.

3.      Gender-Responsive Budgeting (Sweden): Allocating budget resources specifically for women's safety initiatives can help address safety concerns more comprehensively.

4.      Gender-Sensitive Policing (Nordic Countries, Australia and US): Training police officers to be more sensitive to gender issues and ensuring that more women are part of the police force can improve responses to women's safety concerns. Gender diversity targets by the Australian Federal Police (AFP),  Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2016–2026 in Australia and the United States Capitol Police’s Office of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Action (IDEA)

Different strategies adopted by different states of India:

1.      Pink Patrols, Delhi

2.      She AUTO, Ahmedabad Gujarat

3.      Surakasha App, Rajasthan

4.      Nirbhaya Squad, Uttar Pradesh

5.      Women Police Stations

6.      Priyadarshini Cabs, Hyderabad, Telangana

These state-specific strategies aim to create safer environments for women, promote gender- sensitivity, and ensure that incidents of violence and harassment are promptly addressed. While these initiatives are promising, there is still room for further improvement and coordination at the national level to ensure consistent women's safety measures across the country. India, at national level through an effective dialogue with different countries and the states as well, can bring in good policy measures and adopt innovative solutions to ensure women’s safety in the country.  

Why such negotiations are necessary?

Legislation by itself would not suffice because violence against women is a deep rooted social problem. It is worth mentioning that PM Jawahar Lal Nehru who remarked, “Legislation cannot by itself normally solve deep rooted social problems. One has to approach them in other ways too, but legislation is necessary and essential and hence that it may give that push and have educative factors, as well as the legal sanctions behind it, which help public opinion to be given a certain shape.”

With this blog, I open the forum for you all to comment down your thoughts and experiences and share any innovative idea or practice which you think India should adopt to ensure safety of women in public as well as personal space. 

Regards

Aditi Punya Prakash Sharma

 

 

 

SELF LOVE AND WORTH

 Vacations mood! Sleeping, eating, laughing, travelling and again sleeping. We do enjoy our vacations, we do love to have a blast in our vacations. But after a long period of working, studying and having a scheduled life vacations don't turn out to be that productive. It turns out to be a time where we question ourselves, our worth. We get worried about our future and career. Vacations with only fun, seems to be reality check, questioning our productivity. It is important to keep working that is why I always say that I love to keep myself busy. But sometimes even I get such phases where I keep on questioning myself - "What next?" And then that feeling is painful. 

That's why it's important for us to have some sort of productive work in our vacations. I won't lie I searched for a number of internships but couldn't find any relevant to my field. And yes there were some for me but I wasn't enough qualified for that. At such moments we need a mentor or a guide to help us through in finding a good OUR TYPE OF WORK. It is not for our resume or CV or our career etc. It is for our mental stability. Remember when you last questioned your worth? It was painful right? I can understand. That's why its important to keep on doing something. 

Well let's move on to the main agenda of writing this blog. It started with us feeling unproductive. But the blog is for the other section of our society who faces the same problem but it has a profound impact on them instead of us. Yes, the Senior Citizens. The people who have worked for n number of years and after hitting a certain age, either they get retired or their health doesn't support them to keep working like before. 

Their hands and legs ain't strong enough like before, but their mind keeps working right? Their heart still beats right? They go through emotional and mental breakdowns for not being able to work like before. Have you ever seen your grandparent doing some sort of home chores which is not meant for them? Like waking up around 4 am and start cleaning the windows, fans and trying to repair the damaged grinder of your house? If yes, so you need to realize that that person was a workaholic and hitting a certain age and restricted to home for chilling and enjoying the rest of life like that isn't his cup of tea. 

I watched a movie of a person like this who wasn't getting enough attention and required love around himself. So he kept himself busy on various social media platforms and that was a moment where I broke down. I could feel his agony. This age group goes through emotional struggles for being neglected and not productive enough. Isn't this our duty to do something for this. Such questions to policy makers to be asked that what they will do for this particular section of the society. Policies, innovative ideas must come out for this problem as well. 

Looking forward for your story over such issue and also some suggestions to tackle the same from your side in the comment section.   

THE PERSON..

Love is a need, 

People use it for their greed.. 

or may be for their feed.

They say love helps us to grow;

They say love is like a tale of fairy, 

then why he finds love to be scary.

Love helps to live life in a fun way, 

He seems to see love and then run away. 

In the search of his self divine, 

He got the whole of me cryin.. 

I love LOVE but now I'm scared of being in love, 

What if the person's heart is unstable'

then definitely love would make my life disabled.  

I don't wanna be sobbing, 

All I want is to be in love and laughing, 

This scared idiot would leave me and I'll be left weeping. 

I hope my love finds its way,  

Because honey, my trust from love is fading away....

A person, full of life, full of joy, had some past experiences which were pulling back, has went through some pain which was visible in the eyes, wanted to say a lot but was out of words may be. The best part was that the person was a pure soul. That was the vibe. And dude, my vibe never goes wrong. The person was trustworthy, was happy, was a star. 

I had my experiences too, but my heart was full of emotions at that time. I never let my past hold me back, but may be the person did. We were going good, was excited to see each other again. And suddenly I lost the person, deleted me from the feed, didn't want to talk to me anymore now. I was hurt, I was hurt by the fact that the person didn't think of me as a good person, who wasn't vulnerable. I don't know what happened, I wanted to know, but person didn't want to share. I was hurt even more. 

The fact that was pissing me off was that I didn't know anything. What was happening around, I didn't have any clue. Was it my fault?

We met just for once, I thought it would be easy for me to forget and the person and move on, but this time my heart wasn't ready to move on at all. This feel was different, never felt that before. And now, I hate my heart for this.

I want the person to come back whenever it's okay, I want the person to get back whenever it's the best. I will wait. But I am going gaga because I don't know whether I should wait or not. 

All I want to say is that Mystery, I am not a wrong person, I won't hurt you, but yes your instablity is hurting me and I won't forgive you for that. I hope you understand this and come back.   

MY KIND OF LOVE NEVER FADES

Even in the darkest of the times the love I have for you will grow in many different shades, 

Because honey my kind of love never fades. 

Even if my eyes see you for the 6945329th times my cheeks will definitely glow each of the times, 

Because honey my kind of love only shines. 

Even if my mood swings are at the peak or even if your life is going through many highs and lows, 

Honey I'll keep loving you because my kind of love only grows. 

Ever felt those butterflies every time you see a person? How it it possible? Like it's the same person I saw a minute ago and again how can it feel the same and even more? Like how can I still have a big smile on my face and how on this earth is possible that I am still blushing? 

OH! This is beautiful, purely beautiful. Do you feel the same? And tell me what if the person you like doesn't feel the same for you? Will you be hurt? Well I won't be, because honey my kind of love is mine only, no one can love the same way I do! 

May be I like the fact that it's one sided! Because I've heard that it gets complicated by the going time! Do you like that? Complications in your love? No, right1 High five. It's beautiful if its simple and sorted. 

Me going to a cafe, he sitting in a bench visible to me. He is busy with his friends laughing, playing and enjoying and ME? Me busy looking at him. Me just smiling and blushing and ya sorted! And then at home, when I suddenly miss him I take out my phone look at his profile, look at his eyes, his lips, his cheeks, his hair and tadaa I'm smiling again. 

Do you feel the need of texting him? I know it must be really exciting talking to a person you love, even I'd jump off my bed if my phone rings and it's his text!

But you know what I feel, sometimes its okay if you don't talk to him, sometimes its okay if he isn't in love with you! Because love doesn't need two of us, love is pure and infinite and Just ONE is enough to love! 

That's my short One sided love story! What's yours? Comment down your love angle! 

And yes, if you are reading Dear Mystery, I love you. 

AIR POLLUTION AND INDIA

Air pollution has an effect not just on health but also it disrupts the functioning of a country. It reduces overall productivity and decreases the supply of labour. It all translates into elevated health expenditure due to rise in morbidities. 

According to study India suffered an estimated economic loss of 36.8 billion USD due to air pollution in 2019. Premature deaths due to air pollution caused a loss of 28.8 billion USD. 

The state-wise variation in economic loss ranged from 0.67% to 2.15% of the GDP. The low per-capita GDP states incurred the maximum loss. The worst-affected states were Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. The national capital, Delhi, bore the highway per-capita economic loss due to air pollution, followed by its neighbour state of Haryana. Thus, we can infer that the impact of air pollution is more evident in north India.

Deaths

In 2019, air pollution was responsible for around 1.67 million deaths in India. This number is equivalent to 17.8% of the total deaths in the country. Out of those, 0.98 million deaths are attributable to ambient particulate pollution, while household pollution caused 0.61 million deaths.

Positive 

Going by the figures, there has been a 64.2% decline in the death rate due to household air pollution between the years 1990 and 2019. India has been instrumental in taking state- and national-level initiatives to ameliorate household air pollution. The Indian government launched Unnat Chulha Abhiyan in June 2014, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana in May 2016, and National Infrastructure Pipeline Project that has contributed to this decline. 

Negative

However, there is a 115.3% elevation in the death rate attributable to ambient particulate pollution and a 139.2% rise in those attributable to ambient ozone pollution in the same period. 

      {International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW)}              

However, in January 2019, the Indian government launched the National Clean Air Program (NCAP), a five-year action plan to curb air pollution, build a pan-India air quality monitoring network, and improve citizen awareness. The program focuses on 102 polluted Indian cities and aims to reduce PM2.5 levels by 20-30% over the next five years. The analysis conducted by researchers from IIASA and CEEW however suggests that NCAP needs to be backed by a legal mandate to ensure successful ground-level implementation of emission control measures. In the long-term, NCAP also needs to be scaled-up significantly to ensure that rapid economic growth and meeting NAAQs are aligned. 

The significance of the research also lies in the fact that are the people aware about the problem of air pollution and the policies formulated by the government for controlling air pollution. 

A public perception study designed to find out the level of awareness. The comprehensive survey revealed that while awareness of the adverse effects of air pollution is very high, most people seem to think that they need to do nothing at the individual level. This perception needs to be addressed. It is only when people make this a priority issue will politicians wake up and take action,” said Debi Goenka of Conservation Action Trust

A survey conducted by the Lung Care Foundation showed that there was massive unawareness regarding air pollution among public in the national capital region (NCR). It also found that people were unaware about government initiatives and necessary precautions taken to control high levels of pollution. 

The failure of the Indian government in mitigating air pollution is caused because of many reasons like limited budgetary allocations, limited planning abilities at local level, lack of focus and year long commitment, lack of coordinated effort of federal government and local authorities, too little and too late actions, weak local and regional capacities, inability to put check, corrupt governance, lack of use of scientific methods, unchecked and illegal mining, lax enforcement of rules and also lack of accountability. 

That is why despite of so many policies and initiatives the problem of air pollution in India still persists. And India still is one among the most polluted countries in the world. 

The needs as per the study include strong leadership, ambitious actions and strengthening local and regional capacities. The central and state governments must do more to align air quality, climate change, and sustainable development goals in a resource efficient manner. 

The study aims at how India has addressed the situation, on ground implementation of policy actions, need of the hour, learnings from the world, citizen and government links, how the policies failed to prove their worth and also the role of the people. 

Air Pollution and Policy actions

Air pollution is the fifth largest killer in the country, according to Global Burden of Disease. Urban air quality data according to the World Health Organization (WHO) reconfirms that India appears among the group of countries with highest particulate matter (PM) levels. Of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, 13 are in India, says the database. Delhi is among the most polluted cities in the world today. The rising trends in population growth and the consequent effects on air quality are evident in the Indian scenario. Over the years, there has been a massive-scale expansion in industries, population density, anthropogenic activities, and the increased use of automobiles has degraded the air quality in India.  

WHY POLICY ACTIONS? 

1) Major Global health challenge to which children are particularly vulnerable. 

2) To reduce air pollution emmisions and exposure to pollution, action is needed at local, national and international levels. 

3) The actions can contribute to achieving multiple other Sustainable Development Goals, including climate change mitigation. 

 

SIGNIFICANCE OF RESEARCH

Air pollution and climate change are closely linked because many of the sources of Green house Gases responsible for climate change are also major sources of air pollution. CLEAN AIR IS A HUMAN RIGHT AND A NECESSARY PRE CONDITION FOR ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE AS WELL AS ACHIEVING MANY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS.

The continuous degradation of ambient air quality in the urban centres of India demands effective measures to curb air pollution. Though various policy measures are being introduced by the Government of India (GoI) to reduce the vehicular and industrial emissions, the extent to which these measures are implemented is questionable. The lack of infrastructural facilities, inadequacy of financial resources to implement advanced infrastructural innovations, difficulty in relocation of the industries from the urban centres even after mandatory court decisions, and above all, the behavioural patterns among people in accepting the green solutions are some of the crucial impediments on the road to environmental protection that our country seems to be struggling to overcome today. 

In developing countries the implementation of the policies for mitigation of air becomes difficult because initially laws are weak or not applied, secondly the vehicle emission standards are less stringent and coal power stations more prevalent lastly increasing Informal settlements. 

Air pollution problems reflect governance failure because cities transpotation, infrastructure has not kept pace with their growing population. 

The research aims to look into the scope of air pollution, reasons behind the policy failure, initiatives taken by the government, problems in the grounds of air pollution, policies and models of foreign countries and how the citizens and government both being the stakeholders play their respective roles for mitigation of air pollution. The research is for a social impact to look into the awareness among the citizens about the plans, policies and innovations made by the government. 

Everyone has the RIGHT TO BREATHE CLEAN AIR but does everyone care about the air? This research aims to look how we being the citizens pledge to control air pollution. 

Poverty and Inequality

In this blog, I tried putting my views over the relationship between Poverty and Inequality

Question?

Are they same?

Is poverty a consequence of inequality? 

Is inequality a consequence of poverty? 

Will development help to remove them? 

Or removing them will lead to development

Is this a dilema where an economy should look upon?

Development

Development is a multi dimensional concept which involves an overall growth of the social, cultural, economical and political sectors of the economy through which the quality of life of nation, communities or individual would be improved.

Talking about development, the Capability approach of Amartya Sen plays an important role. Here he talks about development to be referred through a person (not an economy) reflecting a progress (not in terms of income or availabitlity of resources) but in terms of capabilities and freedoms. Technically a development which ensures that opportunities are available to each person.

Also, a development which ensures that every section of the society is benefitted. This doesn't mean, the development to be equal because an equal development defines a process where there is inequality in terms of yield distribution. A rich person may get affected negatively while distributing resources and income equally. It should be kept in mind that while expanding the capabilities of some persons, the freedom of any other person should not be impacted negatively.  

Poverty

A poor lacks not only income but also education, health, justice, credit and opportunitues. Thus poverty is not only about a person being under a defined Below Poverty Line. Poverty is a DEPRIVATION of capabilities which limits freedom to achieve something. A multi dimensional approach to poverty describes that poverty is capability failure where the people lack the capability to enjoy key 'beings and doings' that are basic to human life.

Inequality

Inequality is not only in terms of unequal distribution of income but also access to resources and services, access to personal liberty and dignity. The goal while tackling this issue should not be focused only to ensure equal distribution of income but to equalise the opportunities people have to practice their freedoms and not the outcomes people obtain.

Now the question arises what are the causes of inequality and poverty. Are they linked directly to each other? A poor lacks education, health, justice because of the unequal distribution of income and access to resources. A person lacks equal opportunities to education and health, liberty and dignity because of poverty. So is income it's all about? Or is it that if the resources and services like education and health are made available to people equally would ensure a rise in their income levels and pull them out of poverty? 

Is that a human and economic development would lead to a decline of poverty and inequality OR a removal of poverty and inequality would ensure development? Is this the area where the policy makers are confused? What is the priority?

Inequality can not be only income based, it can be gender based, religion based, caste, creed, colour based. So, inequality does not only leads to poverty but also has various impacts like biaseness, tensions and conflicts, violence etc.

Government is to ensure the well being of every citizen of the country. It is important to ensure that no citizen in the country is deprived of basic necessities of living.

Therefore, the main aim should be the removal of poverty. Subsidies, employment generation programmes, affordable and quality education and health services, reservation, safe environment for living are the programmes which contributes in the removal of poverty. They ensure that the citizens are not deprived of capabilities which limits their freedom of ability to enjoy the beings and doings.

A person ensured employment and pulled out from the circle of poverty is economically empowered and thus less subjugated to social inequalities. Is this enough? Certainly yes certainly not. Inequality in justice, raising, freedom has a strong impact on the person's livelihood. Here, empowerment and awareness plays an important role. 

Poverty for me is at individual level and inequality at a community level.

A person deprived from basic necessities loses his/her faith from themselves because of the loss of dignity, trust and livelihood. Thus to strengthen the whole economy, starting from individual level is important. This can be done by incetivising them through employment and financial stableness. And it helps the person to build him/herself strongly. Once the self trust and strength grows, simultaneously the role comes of awareness and empowerment. The community now needs to accept, acknowledge and respect every section of the society and avoid inequalities.

So, this is to be concluded by noting that development, poverty and inequality goes hand to hand. The all three are the consequences and causes of each other. 

By starting the process of removing poverty, the issue of inequality is to be addressed and this leads to development. As well as ensuring development both in terms of social and economical would ensure availability of resources to address the issue of poverty and inequality consecutively. 

Thank you for reading this blog. In this blog I tried my best to put forward my ideas over poverty and inequality, if you have liked it please do comment down and also if you have some points in your minds clicking over this topic do post them in the comment section.