Recently, I had the privilege of meeting with Special Commissioner Chhaya Sharma at the Delhi Police Headquarters. Our discussion centered on the progressive provisions recently enacted by the Indian Parliament in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), formerly known as the Indian Penal Code (IPC). These changes mark a significant step forward in protecting women and children and ensuring swifter justice.

Ms. Sharma’s dedication to this cause was truly inspiring. Her instrumental role in securing justice in the Nirbhaya case reflects the national commitment to improved legal safeguards.

Watch the interaction with IPS Chhaya Sharama sharing a step-by-step guide to justice in Heinous crimes like Rape

A New Dawn for Women and Children

The BNS now dedicates a separate chapter to offenses against women and children, consolidating provisions previously scattered throughout the penal code. This shift signifies the heightened importance placed on their safety and well-being, a point Ms. Sharma emphasized during our conversation.

Key Provisions for Enhanced Protection:

• Clause 70 (Gang Rape of Minors): This clause mandates life imprisonment or the death penalty for the gang rape of a minor, demonstrating zero tolerance for such heinous crimes.
• Clause 69 (Sexual Deception): A new provision criminalizes sexual intercourse by deception or false promise of marriage, regardless of the perpetrator’s gender (man, woman, or transgender), with imprisonment of up to 10 years and a possible fine.
• Stronger Penalties for Exploitation: The BNS strengthens penalties for exploiting and trafficking women and children.

Expedited Justice:

The new laws prioritize faster resolution of heinous crimes like rape by mandating timelines. Victims are no longer required to appear in person for court proceedings, with audio-video electronic means available for examinations, which Ms. Sharma highlighted as crucial for victim protection.

Improved Accessibility and Investigation:

• Zero FIR: The BNS statutorily recognizes Zero FIRs, allowing victims to report crimes at any police station regardless of the location of the offense.
• E-FIR for Women: Women can now file an E-FIR (electronic FIR), ensuring registration within 3 days of receiving the complaint.
• Mandatory Forensic Investigations: Forensic investigations are mandatory for heinous crimes.
• Digital Evidence Admissibility: The BNS emphasizes the importance of digital evidence, making it admissible, especially in cases like matrimonial disputes where traditional proof might be scarce.

These progressive provisions represent a crucial step towards a safer and more just India for women and children. With dedicated law enforcement personnel like Ms. Sharma and improved legal processes, the BNS empowers victims and paves the way for a more secure future.

Empowering Women: Insights from IPS Chhaya Sharma at SABERA

The post Stronger Protections for Women & Children: What’s New in India’s BNS? appeared first on Woman Endangered.

Women turn brand ambassadors of sustainable menstrual products taking the multi-billion dollar industry of disposables head on.

Listen to various stakeholders from the social venture investors, nonprofit sector, social entrepreneurs, and medical fraternity join hands in the spirit of collaboration debunking misinformation and talking of facts and personal experiences on sustainable menstruation in particular and Periods at large! Busting misinformation in pursuit of Ms information 🙂

The Simply Suparnaa © Media Network recently hosted an insightful panel discussion on the topic of sustainable menstrual products and their impact on the billion-dollar industry dominated by disposable products. The panelists, who brought a wealth of experience and expertise, shared their insights and experiences on the subject.

Dr. Meenakshi Bharat, a gynecologist with 35 years of experience specializing in fertility work, has made it her mission to advocate for sustainable living. In addition to her medical practice, she actively promotes waste reduction, composting, and the use of reusable products. Dr. Bharat’s commitment to sustainability even extends to organizing waste-free weddings for her children. Her valuable insights on the health benefits of sustainable menstrual products added great value to the discussion.

Sashi Rajamani, a founding member of Social Venture Partners in Bengaluru, brought two decades of corporate experience to her work in promoting social impact ventures and foundations. As the managing trustee of the Konrai Foundation, Rajamani collaborates with over 20 NGOs, striving to create a platform for promoting performing arts while addressing social and environmental challenges, including sustainable menstruation.

Dr Shanthi Thummala, initially trained as a dentist, took a bold step by leaving her job to lead the Swachh Siddipet campaign in collaboration with the Telangana government. Her expertise in waste management proved invaluable in streamlining waste segregation, collection, transportation, and disposal. Driven by her passion for environmental conservation, Dr. Thummala also spearheaded the sustainable menstruation campaign, aiming to address the environmental damage caused by sanitary waste in Siddipet.

Malini Parmar, with a strong background in the global IT industry and an education from prestigious institutions such as IIM-Kolkata and Delhi College of Engineering, decided to leverage her experience for social change. Co-founding Stonesoup, a social enterprise dedicated to sustainable living, Parmar offers a range of products that contribute to a greener future. As a single parent and advocate for sustainable menstruation, Parmar shared her personal experiences and insights during the panel discussion.

The panelists brought diverse perspectives and experiences to the table, creating a dynamic discussion that touched upon the health benefits of sustainable menstrual products, the environmental impact of disposable alternatives, and the empowerment of women as brand ambassadors for sustainable options. By challenging the status quo, these panelists are leading the way toward a future where women’s health and the well-being of the planet are prioritized.

You will also love reading about my experience with gifting cloth pads to girls with hearing impairment in Noida.

Psst : If you’re doing GOOD the SABERA jury is looking for your work to acknowledge you.

The post 17 K Crore industry of disposables- Do sustainable menstrual products stand a chance? appeared first on Woman Endangered.

Last year, I reached out to Ruma Roka, who has been a SABERA awardee, to discuss the idea of the #LetsTalkPeriod session at the Noida Deaf Society. It would require a sign language interpreter to communicate the session to the girls and their mothers, who would also be invited to the 90-minute workshop followed by hot samosas and a soft drink.

On the 25th day of January 2023, WE conducted our very first session with a classroom of girls with hearing impairment along with some of their mothers. The girls were interactive from the word go and had lots of questions, observations, and comments. It was heartening to see that they weren’t shy to express their views on Periods or Menstrual hygiene! Maybe their inability to hear has cocooned them of the social constructs and taboos!

Their openness and confidence definitely reflected the safe space that the Noida Deaf Society and its teachers provide for them to help them live well-rounded life despite their disabilities. I was apprised of some horror stories of how deaf girls are extremely vulnerable and can be subject to exploitation by their own teachers. Being visually able, young deaf girls like all other teenagers, like to dress up and look good. There have been cases where the teachers have exploited them sexually, in the lure of a dress or jeans, the heinous acts being hidden in the girls’ inability to speak up for themselves.

We gifted the girls, 20 LAADLI Kits(containing 5 cloth pads, 2 jackets, and I small purse ) that were received pro bono from Stonesoup trust. The girls were also taught how to use, wash, dry, and store them.

The feedback from the girls post the session was humbling and I am grateful for this opportunity.

Karishma was the Indian sign Language interpreter. The only request I had to heed was to go slow. On average, an interpreter is required to take a break after 60 minutes but Karishma was just as passionate about it.

We wrapped the session, as usual with some yog asanas and simple home remedies to address irregularities through periods including cramps, body aches, and rash but the most important factor is to reinforce a positive association with this natural regular cycle that mother nature has bestowed on us to sustain the universe. This also helps allay a lot of these symptoms when we look forward to the periodic cycle.

Incase, you would like us to conduct this workshop in your institute or organization, do write to us at womanendangered@gmail.com or suparnaa@simplysuparnaa.com

You can also contribute here to help us reach out to more girls and women with the #LetsTalkPeriod session and to gift a sustainable menstrual hygiene solution of a menstrual cup or cloth pad.

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I am a domestic violence survivor. Even as an engineering graduate, I was not allowed to work outside the confines of the house. Irrespective, I took pride in looking after my children and looked after my family as best as I could. As a wife, daughter-in-law, and mother, I feel I have done well. Our two intelligent citizens of the country stand testimony to this. Unfortunately, though, at this stage in my life, I am left wanting to know my worth as a homemaker. Tortured and abandoned by the same family, domestic violence has become the reality of my life.

My name is Archana Mittal (maiden Sharma) aged 59 years (Turning 60 this year). As a Chemical Engineer, I have an MBA in Development Management. I have been a national scholarship holder and a District Topper who is now seeking her worth as a homemaker.

We have come a long way since the Violence Against Women Act was passed in 1994. It is important to recognize that domestic violence impacts millions of people, and it’s not only women who are victims; men suffer domestic violence as well.

Seeking legal recourse after domestic abuse, My experience with the police and courts exposed me to torture on another level. From exorbitant lawyer fees to delays in police complaint registration and subsequent delayed court dates. I continue to experience a multiplicity of litigation as filed by my estranged husband to break me with his might in the corporate world and the monetary success that I had silently helped him accrue as his homemaker wife. It’s been over six years that I am waiting for a date in the court that gets me my due as a 59-year-old homemaker. Despite all the evidence, I am suffering on all accounts. At this age I do not want a divorce, all I want is to lead a dignified life as supported by my constitution, and protected by the laws of our country.

Here are a few suggestions to affect a policy change such that the laws are actually impactful to those who suffer and not just become a tool for manipulation for a few.

These are arrived at after diligent research through journals, as well as speaking with survivors and other stakeholders.

· Do you know there is NO data available on domestic abuse offenders? Incorporating or creating a national register for domestic abuse offenders is of prime importance

· Addressing domestic abuse as an issue with the public health system

· Give a mandate to public distribution systems (milk booths, ration shops), places of worship, medical shops, and Kirana stores to have trigger buttons where women can register their domestic abuse call to authorities. All these centres/places have helpline numbers of NGOs working on Domestic violence. Sensitization to be done for these places

· Making help more accessible to victims in a seamless manner

· Creating a special task force by integrating offices from the Ministry of Health and Family welfare

· Training domestic abuse health counsellors (special counsellors)

· Special tribunals in courts for fast-tracking domestic abuse cases

· Gender-neutral laws (men and women both can be offenders)

· Creating awareness about domestic violence from the school level (inclusive of boys and girls)

· Introducing a subject on finance and law to understand the basics at the school secondary level (since most women are not involved in these at home they tend to suffer not knowing even the basics)

· Along with the registration of marriages, handing booklet of domestic violence laws to the couple

· Acknowledging the role of Homemakers in GDP growth. Some percentage of the earning member’s salary can be kept in an escrow account or GOI can collect as a cess tax (deducted from salary), and grant an adequate amount as maintenance, as prescribed by the supreme court, so the long-drawn-out fight lessens the burden on courts as well as resulting in giving dignity of women in society for being homemaker.

· After the amendment of laws, a review should be done to see the impact. Ever since the decriminalisation of adultery, chaos has erupted in the fabric of society. As though it’s a license to become immoral and corrupt leading to more divorces and collateral damage to families and children.

Divorces affect the GDP of the country too.

Please find a recent researched base report on the reasons for domestic violence as conducted by a couple of research scholars in Tripura focusing on their state. This research on reasons for domestic violence must be done countrywide to assess the situation of women in their own homes, reasons, challenges and what needs to be done for half of the population.

With All respect

Archana Mittal

Views are personal. The author, Archana Mittal volunteers with Mission Anganwadi,(CSO), an initiative for restructuring and strengthening Anganwadis. She also works for Vriddhachi Anganwadi at Pune, creating an ecosystem for elders ( 60-95yrs) within the community to age gracefully. She further supports women in challenging situations by creating short videos spreading awareness about women’s rights. As a certified therapist, she also provides counselling to women undergoing trauma and abuse in their own homes.

The post Domestic Violence: A victims appeal appeared first on Woman Endangered.

“… an independent woman, a divorcee, a citizen of a neutral country, a courtesan and a dancer, which made her a perfect scapegoat for the French, who were then losing the war. She was kind of held up as an example of what might happen if your morals were too loose.”

                                                                                                    – British Historian Julie Wheelwright

Does History judge men, women and events objectively and fairly? It is, they say, more objective than stories, or mostly. But they also say that it belongs to the victor, not to the vanquished. The life and times of Margaretha Geertrida Zelle, popularly known as Mata Hari, offer an intriguing and fascinating account of how history treats those who border on infamy and calumny.

Her beauty and charm were legendary. She was the most desired woman of her time. This succinct but evidently enthusiastic description of her beauty by a French journalist eloquently sums up her timeless pulchritude, ‘feline, extremely feminine, majestically tragic, the thousand curves and movements of her body trembling in a thousand rhythms.’ Another journalist saw her as “slender and tall with the flexible grace of a wild animal, and with blue-black hair, making a strange foreign impression.” Such was the sweep of her charm and unearthly beauty that the best of youth and virile masculinity of German and French army congregated around her like inebriated moths circling the sweet and bright luminosity of an irresistible, extraordinary flame.

The Transformation

Born Margaretha Geertrida Zelle in Leeuwarden, Netherlands on August 07, 1876. She acquired the stage name of Mata Hari when she chose to become a dancer and a courtesan. Her marriage to a Dutch colonial army Captain Rudolph MacLeod took her to Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia where she not only learnt the exotic dances but also changed her name to Mata Hari which in Javanese means ‘eye of the day’ or ‘Sun’. It is commonly believed that her choice or compulsion to stray into the very glamorous though questionable life of a dancer and a courtesan was largely due to the ill-treatment meted out to her by her husband from whom she got two children, a daughter and a son, a divorce later on and his betrayal when he reneged on his promise to maintain her.

The transition to a new avatar and her finding residence eventually in Paris, and her transformation into a spy, and then a double agent, is the stuff of fascinating legend that got built around her during her own life but even more after her execution on October 15, 1917. She was shot by a firing squad of the French Army on charges of espionage and subversive secret activities. More than 100 years after her death, her story never ceases to interest and excite common men and historians alike.

Her life saw three distinct phases. The one spent in East Indies (Java and Sumatra) along with her husband of Scottish origin, where she imbibed the local culture but more importantly, learnt the rudiments of oriental dances that she perfected later in a western setting, as uncommonly exotic and sensuous for the time. On her return to Paris, her second phase of life began when she became famous as an exotic dancer possessed with an attitude of extraordinary abandon and daring with the courage to display her assets boldly but always with grace and style. The third and the last phase began with the beginning of WWI when, she transformed into a courtesan and a spy, tragically ending in her arrest, trial and execution in 1917. Each one of her life’s phases reflected a beautiful and resolute woman’s struggles and triumphs to conquer her own vulnerabilities and conquest of the weakness that attracted men to her unusual beauty and charm.

Notwithstanding her reputation as a thorough professional and largely emotionless, she had an unusually sensitive and tender heart which was evidenced by her love for the Russian soldier Maslov whom she really loved. When Maslov was critically injured in war, she travelled all the way to an enemy country to meet him and to be with him, taking full advantage of her Dutch citizenship which made her a neutral citizen. However, like much in her life, her love also remained unrequited. Maslov, broken, deeply embittered and physically incapacitated having lost his eyes was so disillusioned that he declined to testify for her when she was facing her trial. This terrible development was such a heart-breaking moment that It was reported that she fainted when she learned that Maslov had abandoned her.

Beginning of an End

While her days as a dancer, which were also dominated by Isabella Duncan and Ruth St. Dennis on the other side of the Atlantic, contemporaneously, were the most glamorous and enticing, her role as a double agent working both for the Germans and French and the subsequent denouement in her life is what has fascinated historians.

Fresh evidence suggests that she was more a victim of circumstances and there is nothing on record to establish any serious espionage assignment that she may have carried out as such. By 2007, it was being convincingly argued that she may not actually be guilty of the charges that the French levelled against her. Fresh research has unearthed the likely conspiracy which the French Army hatched to retrieve its battering image of continuing defeats and sagging morale of its soldiers and found in Mata Hari an unsuspecting scapegoat who was powerless in retaliation to the charges of espionage and defenceless in the face of French army’s might. It did not help matters at all that she was living a life of opulence and luxury and maintained a lifestyle so lavish and glamorous that it stood so strikingly shocking and incongruous for those days of misery and privation that the people were experiencing at large.     

In a contrived communication on secret channels known to be intercepted by French, her connection with the Germans was revealed, which formed the basis for her arrest on 13 February 1917 from her room in Hotel Elysee Palace, Paris. She was put on trial on 24 July, accused of spying for Germany, and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers. Although the French and British intelligence suspected her of spying for Germany, neither could produce definite evidence against her.  

Contrived Trial

In 1917, France had been badly shaken by the Spring Mutinies of the French Army, failure of the Nivelle Offensive leading to a huge strike wave. Many believed that France might simply collapse as a result of war exhaustion. In July 1917, a new government under Georges Clemenceau had come into power, utterly committed to winning the war. In this context, having one German spy on whom everything that went wrong with the war so far could be blamed was most convenient for the French government, making Mata Hari the perfect scapegoat, which explains why the case against her received maximum publicity in the French press and led to her importance in the war being greatly exaggerated.

Wesley Wark, the Canadian historian maintained that Mata Hari was never an important spy, if at all. “They needed a scapegoat and she was a notable target for scapegoating”. British historian Julie Wheelwright likewise stated: “She really did not pass on anything that you couldn’t find in the local newspapers in Spain.”

During trials, she was portrayed as a femme fatale, the dangerous, seductive woman who uses her sexuality to effortlessly manipulate men. Her prosecutor Bouchardon argued, “without scruples, accustomed to making use of men, she is the type of woman who is born to be a spy.”Her defence counsel, veteran international lawyer Édouard Clunet, on the other hand, faced impossible odds; he was denied permission either to cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses or to examine his own witnesses directly.

Unfazed in the face of Execution

She was executed by a firing squad of 12 French soldiers just before dawn on 15 October 1917. She was not bound and refused a blindfold. She defiantly blew a kiss to the firing squad. A British reporter Henry Wales, an eyewitness, recorded her death, thus: “After the volley of shots rang out, slowly, inertly, she settled to her knees, her head up always, and without the slightest change of expression on her face. For the fraction of a second, it seemed she tottered there, on her knees, gazing directly at those who had taken her life. Then she fell backwards, bending at the waist, with her legs doubled up beneath her.” A non-commissioned officer then walked up to her body, pulled out his revolver, and shot her in the head to make sure she was dead.

Her Remains- mysterious and missing

Mata Hari’s body was not claimed by any family members and was accordingly used for medical study. Her head was embalmed and kept in the Museum of Anatomy in Paris. In 2000, archivists discovered that it had disappeared, possibly as early as 1954, according to curator Roger Saban, during the museum’s relocation. Her head remains missing. Records dated from 1918 show that the museum also received the rest of the body, but none of the remains could later be accounted for.

A New Assessment

American historians Norman Palmer and Thomas Allen, in many ways, reflect her new assessment. “She was naïve and easily duped, a victim of men rather than a victimizer.”

“Harlot? Oui! Mais traitoress, jamais!” ‘Courtesan! Yes; Spy, never!’. This is how she reacted when confronted with the charge by the French Military that she was a spy for Germans.

After almost a century, her statement made then rings a truth, or almost.

Author Uday Kumar Varma’s PostScript

History does it treat men and events evenly? Mostly perhaps, in the long run! But there are injustices and atrocities, not caused by circumstances but by the chroniclers of these circumstances. Mata Hari, the (in)famous spy of WWI times, denigrated and later executed as a spy working for Germans presented a multi-hued life, kaleidoscopic but tragic. Not much was understood about her during her lifetime and till almost a hundred years afterwards. However, new evidence and fresh evaluation of her life offer glimpses of life largely misunderstood. The above piece endeavours to present her life in the light of new discoveries about her deeds and misdeeds.

Women have often been neglected as major contributors to the history of the world either through commission or distortion. It’s a delight for us to have taken on the challenge to unearth these overlooked gems and keep relevant the stories of amazing women in history.

This article is part of a series on women in history by author Uday Kumar Varma, former secretary of the Ministry of Information & broadcasting and MSME, Government of India. An ardent proponent of gender equity, Varma writes on women through history who have excelled in their area of passion and defied conventions. You may also like to read about the activist Emmeline Pankhurst from England, the lady sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko from Russia,  the American pilot Amelia Earhart or Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg or just maybe a piece on the Spanish artist  Frida Kahlo?

The post Mata Hari – The Femme fatale appeared first on Woman Endangered.

In the last menstrual hygiene workshop I took with adolescent girls in a government-aided school, the questions of whether it is Ok to go to a temple during menstruation, did crop up as did the issue of a woman’s ‘purity’ through the periods. A reactional answer to the same was, why pray to a God that stops listening to a woman through a natural body process. A more logical explanation could be the fear generated due to the lack of appropriate solutions available earlier. A temple has been a social place, so staining or dropping especially while bowing down through menstruation may have been a deterrent to visit. Reinforced with a window to provide rest and further avoiding the demand of sex on the woman, which may lead to a risk of infection through the cycle, a certain set of instructions may have been laid down. But as is seen, Instructions of welfare, often become tools to control and are convoluted to convenience for power.

Ancient wisdom appropriated cotton cloth as a menstrual solution which is a hygienic, economical and sustainable option, as long as it is washed and dried in the sun for reuse or simply disposed of responsibly.  Unfortunately, this has been misconstrued as redundant and dirty archaic practice. Popular film actor Akshaye Kumar’s admonition before every film in the theatre reinforces the ‘Ganda Kapada mahavari bimari’ (Dirty Cloth Menstruation disease). The genesis of the ad was through his own depiction of the pad man which is the ‘success story’ of a micro social entrepreneur producing locally made sanitary pads. While the movie is great in getting a conversation started but scratch the surface and it wreaks of poor quality products produced in large numbers which served its purpose only to create a market for sanitary pads manufactured by multinationals, denouncing the age-old wisdom of cloth pads.

As the Mythri speaks site quotes

‘We all know that the forces which control the perceived needs of developing countries are driven by economic outcomes. Given the way they work, in another 5-7 years, don’t be surprised if nothing remained of the wisdom and knowledge that women possessed about their menstrual cycles. It has already happened with the vast knowledge India had about pregnancy and childbirth that now stands destroyed.’

It further claims ‘Over the last 4 years, we (Mythri Speaks Trust) have been approached by leading Sanitary Napkin Manufacturers with the same request camouflaged as CSR activity – help us enter the rural Indian market.’

Today sustainable solutions such as silicone menstrual cups & leak-proof cloth pads with a single plastic layer are available that can be washed and reused over many years. This completely eliminates the non-biodegradable waste produced by each pad, which takes almost 800 years to disintegrate. However, changing the carefully orchestrated negative narrative against sustainable solutions may be a challenge.

In this melee comes the Menstrual hygiene day 2019. One of the most prestigious industry-body is organizing a conference reinforcing unsustainable solutions to its well-endowed member companies in a bid to have a conversation around menstruation.  And for this, it has partnered with a large multinational manufacturer of sanitary pads that encourages just to ‘Whisper’ that is if they stand by their name. Did Irony just die!

As a passionate Gender equity worker, I often get into discussions with like-minded folks exchanging notes, learnings, understanding different perspectives in a bid to break my own stereotypical notions (I had to challenge my own mindset to use the menstrual cup when I did for the first time a few years back). More often than not I have always found merit in ancient wisdom, through the few untarnished or not convoluted to convenience, references that may still be present. I had the privilege to record one such conversation with Kusum Mohapatra, President of a prominent foundation. She corroborates the celebration of menstruation in girls through social festivals in ancient India, especially in regions where the Mother Goddess is worshipped as Durga, Chandika, Tarini or Devi.  The Devi herself is acknowledged to have a menstrual cycle like that in the Kamakhya Devi temple in Assam. Another such reference that is still prevalent in the east, is the Rajjo festival of Odhisa. We discussed this in detail, as Kusum was born and raised in Odhisa, who further shared her knowledge of similar celebrations in the southern belt of Telangana, Andhra, Tamil Nadu and more. I hope you enjoy this interaction. Do share more information that you may have on the subject or simply share this further as your bit of spreading the light of knowledge through the darkness of ignorance.

The post The Menstrual Commerce appeared first on Woman Endangered.

At a time when women in our country are making Indians proud like DeepaKarmakar, the first female gymnast from India to have made it to the Olympics, and several others who have made it to our collective national consciousness through their courage, hard work and confidence, it makes me pensive and sad about how certain others are coping with their lives. And before you overlook this article as another rant about women’s lib and rights, let me narrate an incident that set me thinking.

My live-in domestic help who I had mistakenly thought would be with me forever left for her village quite suddenly and I was left to cope with a part time help. As I extended her timings and asked her for some extra assistance in the days to come, I was surprised to find that instead of being ecstatic about an increase in her wages, she was excited about that one amenity we all take for granted: a toilet. She knew spending more time at my place meant she could use the spare toilet and much of her misery in life was taken care of. As is clear, she does not have a basic toilet in her small one room house (if we can call it that) and has to go out for defecation. Not only her but her daughters too have to step out of the house at all odd hours for the same.

As I gave her a fresh soap, towel, shampoo her joy knew no bounds and every day she turned out cleaner and happier after her bath. The face that was till then dull and lifeless had taken on a healthy hue. I was amazed to see how much of a difference it made to her confidence.

Why is it that we still have so many people who are denied these basic rights? Although, the Swachhbharatabhiyaan is on in full swing, there are miles to go before we would have covered even half the ground. In 2014-15 , the government managed to build 5.8 million toilets, but the result was quite unexpected. Firstly, many of these were not functional due to lack of water and drainage issues and secondly, rural households were not ready for this lifestyle change. Mere building of toilets would not solve the problem. What is needed is a cultural shift and a change in mindsets of people who have never used toilets since childhood.

Open defecation has been found to have grave consequences. It remains the single largest threat to health and nutrition. It is also a threat to the safety of women. Open defecation can be a source of diarrhoea and other infectious diseases. Sanitation facilities in public places as well as households is the need of the hour. Very recently, I came to know to my utter shock that open defecation also leads to stunting in people. Lack of sanitation is one of the major causes for stunted growth. 62 million children under the age of 5 are stunted in India. Of course, other life-threatening diseases which cause malnutrition are also a fallout of poor sanitation. This brings me back to the topic of hygiene and how important it is for child survival, nutrition and growth.

My maid is just a case in point but there are thousands in India who are not even aware of the benefits of sanitation and hygiene and are living in pathetic conditions without even knowing the importance of hygiene. For women, as expected, things are only worse. Spreading awareness should be the first step, swift and efficient execution should follow to provide a dignified life to each one of us.

Rashi Bisaria

The post This is not a country for women… appeared first on Woman Endangered.

So while many instances are quoted, celebrated and revered where the woman pines for her consort symbolizing a yearning for the God, there are an equal number of mythological references that have a man yearn for his woman. Only the former seem to have found resonance in stories told & retold over a period of time. A man, however, giving up all worldly pleasures for the love of his woman may not quite align with the mindset that reinforces patriarchy in the sub continent.

A recent post by Devdutt Patnaik prompted me to write this post. Its amazing how a strong mindset of the country can influence the popularity or lack of it, of the various aspects of their revered and age old mythology. Devdutt shares the story of Dashratha’s parents & Ram’s grand parents Aja & Indumati. On the sudden demise of Indumati her husband Aja too dies shortly after, unable to cope with his wife’s loss. He further extrapolates the Jal Samadhi of Ram, amidst societal pressure of him getting married again, Ram voluntarily walks into the river Sarayu, never to rise again after Sita gets engulfed by the earth.  Devdutt goes ahead and shares ‘In a patriarchal society, where women were once expected to burn themselves on their husband’s funeral pyre as Sati, no one is allowed to say that a husband killed himself because he could not bear life on earth without his wife. So, it is even today’

Further instances of a man’s yearning are depicted through Shiva for his consort Sati who kills herself due to her father’s non acceptance of Shiva as her husband. Shiva in turn is inconsolable both in rage and in his love for Sati.  He carries his wife’s lifeless body close to his heart till Vishnu cuts it in pieces which fall on earth to form the various Shakti Peethas.

The interpretation of mythology largely remains influenced by the interpreters own personal beliefs and biases. Just as history is written by the interpretation of the victor and as we know today by the power at the centre. But the epics truly depict society as it was, including references to women choosing or changing their partners as per their own free will. Polyandry was an accepted norm and one of the most cited examples is that of Draupadi. Polyandry itself is believed to have developed to regulate promiscuity and is probably the genesis of a matriarchal way of society. Further, according to the Mahabharat it was the hermit son of the great seer Uddakala, who laid the new law for women in a fit of rage.  ‘Maryada’ as it is known, is a restrictive rule of a woman’s infidelity to her husband, as Svetavaku could not see his mother with a man other than his father Uddakala. A detailed explanation can be found in the book Polyandry in Ancient India.

Closer date came the controversial ‘Manusmriti’ a  Sanskrit text that helped form the Hindu law through its translation in the British Raj and is inherited in the present day India. While the authenticity of the script itself, its inconsistencies and compilations are disputed, the interpretations especially for the laws that direct women seem parochial in perspective. One school of thought considers this a conscious depiction of India as barbaric, racist & misogynistic so as to promote missionary ideologies through the British rule.

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