A different prospective, Women empowerment Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - See more at: http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowOriyaColumn.asp?id=53891#sthash.PaBx76F3.dpuf

By Adyasha Patra In recent past, a lot has been inedited about women issues and their solution specifically  mpowerment. So much so that, women empowerment was the favourite buzzword in one of the most respected interview of one very prominent demagogue during run up to the last general election.  In fact, women centric issues were perhaps one of the most important planks which influenced the general elections if not altered the election outcomes for the first time. However, in this cacophony of feminism something which is more significant is getting eroded. There are multitudes of problems which are plaguing the integration of women into the mainstream of Indian society. This opinion is bolstered by several demographic indexes which are rightfully  showing the sordid state of affairs. In the recent gender inequality index, India is placed at the rank of 127 among 157 nations, which is one blot for a so called emerged super power. Its depressingly squalid state is worse than countries like Srilanka, Bangladesh and we are jointly placed with Pakistan.  After independence, our founding fathers of constituent assembly have enshrined several provisions in the form of fundamental rights and directive policy of state principles, which are meant to realise the full inherent potential of women. We have enacted many laws, many schemes starting from 1st FYP for the betterment of women. But have all these schemes and laws have proved their mettle in their stated objective. Is the much discussed approach of welfare, development and empowerment has failed to give women their rightful status and independent identity. The answer is emphatic yes, as we have failed in every demographic attribute concerning Indian Women, be it sex ratio, child sex ratio, Maternal Mortality Rate, health, literacy, employment, socio-economic and political status. What is more worrisome is, we are not analysing from our past mistakes, as reflected from the non implementation of ‘Towards Equality Report’ as lampooned by National Commission for Women. Till now, despite of all the ingeminating of all the schemes and laws, we have always treated women as the silent benefactor of Govt policies. We have never considered them as the equal partner in the process of this great nation building. We have always considered as them as necessary appendage to men. We must painfully point out that, in this process of assigning ‘adjunct to men’ status, they have connived greatly with men. Often, it is seen that they are ready to play the second fiddle to men.  This reflects in our culture also, when there are enormous festivals, where women pray for the wellbeing of their male counterpart. Can we imagine a situation, where wife is the breadwinner and husband is taking care of babies? Some maintains that this inequality between the sexes is based upon the biologically or genetically based differences between men and women. May be there is substantial amount of truth in it, maybe not. There is no conclusive empirical evidence, where we can emphatically point out that the difference between the sexes is affecting women adversely.  However, we look towards history, we can find out concourse of examples, where women are far superior to men. For example, in awe of Jhansi Rani, Hugh Rose the man who defeated her said ‘Here lay the woman who was the only man among the rebels’. In intellectual sphere also, there are multiple examples, where women have excelled extremely well in the past also and also in recent times. Often in educated upper elite class, women perform status – maintaining and enhancing activities to family as educated house wives, mothers and earners. They act as cushion against the rising cost of living. Probably the lack of self esteem among women, or the very eagerness to play the ‘adjunct to men’ is costing them dear. It is often said that this approach of women, is responsible for the paradox, where women Goddesses are worshipped and women are denied their independent identity and status.  Do we ever care to guess, why women have relatively better position in the economically lower strata of the society and why countries like Germany and Switzerland have almost zero inequality between the sexes. What commonality do they have? It is the employability of women in both the case. In India, if we follow rural to urban migration then demographic attributes are not good for women as mostly men migrate to urban spaces for employment. However, in developed countries, the case is reverse. Mostly women migrate to urban spaces for employment opportunity. The more inclusive the growth is, the more economical power women possess, the more social status, they would likely to get. The committee on the Status of Women in India was of the view that planners, government officials, employers and trade union leaders perpetuated the middle class perceptions of Women’s primary role as the home maker not as the bread winner. However, we must point out that without the acquiescence of women this view would not have existed. In 1993-94, as many as 86.2 percent female workers were engaged in the primary sector, which included the agriculture and allied sector such as forestry, livestock etc, in the rural areas. Within agriculture, they mostly work as agricultural labourers or cultivators. That implies a lion percentage of educated elite women preferred to stay at home to take care of the families and babies. Particularly this is the attitude which contributes to the perpetuation of backward status of women.  We need to take cue from what Mahatma Gandhi Said long back, “Woman is the companion of man gifted with equal mental capacities”. Women must stop looking at men as their liberators; they must take the leadership at their hand. It is education, economic influence and esteem which can give them their rightful place in human society. - See more at: http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowOriyaColumn.asp?id=53891#sthash.PaBx76F3.dpuf

18 Chilling Stories Of Everyday Sexism In India That Reveal The Horrors Of Gender Based Violence

By Shreena Thakore:

Every act of sexual violence is nested within a much broader network of other social imbalances.

Instances of sexual violence cannot be isolated from the cultural context within which they occur. The prevalence of rape is a manifestation of a much larger social problem involving cultural norms, mindsets and attitudes toward gender. These mindsets and attitudes infiltrate every strata of society and lead to everyday incidents of gender-based discrimination. Often, such incidents tend to be ignored. The individuals perpetrating them can be unaware of the implications of their own actions, as most gender-based discrimination happens on a largely subconscious level.

The trivialization of gender-based discrimination leads to a culture of silence that strengthens existing discriminatory social systems. Daily occurrences – such as belittling boys for crying and expecting girls (but not boys) to learn cooking at a young age – can easily go unnoticed, because we think of gender roles as normal. Additionally, the fear of being stigmatized and ridiculed often keeps us from talking about our experiences. We are told to “not make a big deal and move on”. We remain silent because we think we are the only ones, or because we write off the problem as “trivial” and “not serious”.

Until we recognize the significance of seemingly “harmless” incidents and understand how they feed into the same imbalanced power structures that lead to rape, we will not be able to tackle India’s gender-based problem at its roots.

NCFW presents: Break The Silence is a campaign based on visuals created from anonymously submitted real-life stories of gender-based discrimination. No Country For Women (NCFW) asks you to share your experiences and make it known that it is not okay to continue sanctioning gender-based oppression. These visuals are meant to elicit conversation about what may otherwise get ignored or trivialized.

Email your submission to contact@nocountryforwomen.org with SUBMISSION as the subject.http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2014/10/sexism-and-gender-discrimination/#at_pco=smlwn-1.0&at_si=543c04f4bd114158&at_ab=per-4&at_pos=0&at_tot=1

9 Books You Should Read If You Really Want To Understand Feminism

By Arpita Pande: 

Feminism is a widely circulated concept, or more of a belief in the contemporary society. However, at many places, women were not even recognized as individuals till two centuries ago. For example, in 16th century England, rape was not even recognized as a crime against a woman’s body. If at all, it was to be persecuted, it was seen as a defiance of the father’s or husband’s virgin property. It was through ideological, social and repressive methods that male dominance prevailed for so long and still finds its existence. However, women have defeated patriarchy time and again. As informed young individuals it is important to be aware of what feminism is, what was the position of woman before, how they liberated themselves, where we stand today and finally how much more do we need to travel to reach the point of equality between the two sexes.

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1. Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft (non-fiction): Considered to be the very first formal paradigm to voice the emancipation of woman, Mary Wollstonecraft lays stress on female education. She believes that women should not just focus on courting men with their beauty and stick to being meek and coy but women should be reasonable and rational. She lays stress on education that would make them aware of their fundamental rights. She also believes that marriage should be a companionship, where both husband and wife share a mental compatibility too. Though she adheres to a woman’s role of taking care of the family and does not equalize woman to man. However, this work is credited with the beginning of feminist theories.

2. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf (fictionalized essays): In this series of essays, Virginia Woolf sends out a strong critique on the uneven conditions of living and growth distributed amongst men and women. She establishes that the reason why women can so easily be subjugated is because they are deprived of education and money, thus women haven’t been able to articulate much in the world of literature. They do not have the time and space to perform such activities. Woolf through her imaginative narrator (“call me Mary Beton, Mary Seton…”) goes to the past and imagines a scenario, where if Shakespeare had a sister, despite the same talent she would go unrecognized because she would simply not be given a chance to express herself. The narrator also opens up literature for women. But these too are written by men who dictate their personal ideologies, thus further propagating patriarchal notions. The series ends with an exhortation of the existing traditions and Woolf’s plea to the women audience to condemn it.

3. The Madwoman in the Attic by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar (non-fiction): This book finds its roots in the Charlotte Bronte’s Novel Jane Eyre. The character of Berth Mason, in Jane Eyre, represents the out spoken woman (a phenomenon uncommon in 19th century England) who refuses to submit to her husband’s (here, Mr. Rochester’s) will. And in order to restore the order of patriarchy, Bertha Mason is branded to be mad, locked in an attic and violently treated. Gilbert and Gubar select this marginalized character to question the polarities attached to a woman’s character as: “angel” or “monster”. These images were popularly circulated in the society and also within the canon of writers. The two theorists deconstruct this binary and question the practice of witch burning vis-à-vis notion of morality and the denial of freedom of speech for women.

4. A Literature of Their Own by Elaine Showalter (non-fiction): A Literature of Their Own encapsulates the growth of feminist theories and criticism from the Bronte sisters to Doris Lessing. Patriarchy being the dominant rule dictates the production of writings. Thus the literature produced by women is not independent of the style dictated by men. Showalter then explores the concept of “Amazonian Utopia”. She explains the growth of three waves of feminism and along with the growth of female writers. The first wave demanded for recognition of woman as a part of society, the second wave wanted equality with men. They launched the suffragette movement and wave of flapper generation recognizes these demands. The third wave looks at women as independent beings and not as a complimentary or equal to men. She also takes a step to recognize the unwritten struggles of woman written daily and believes that only the canonized writers don’t represent the entire realm of a woman’s struggle.

5. Sexual Politics by Kate Millett (non-fiction): This book deals with how the idea of “compliant woman” is actively accepted both in literature and society. She questions the all-pervading control that men exercise in all institutions like the police, church and so on. Further, Millett talks about the politics of subjugation that works by controlling a woman’s body in a male dominant society. A woman’s role is basically to satisfy the desires of man and her own sexual needs are either neglected or considered as evil. Their existence is a mutual barter: where women give sex to get food and shelter. And since women’s sexuality is easily suppressed, it becomes easy to control them. Rapes and domestic violence are an outcome when a woman sidelines herself from the norm. Millett’s urge is to restructure the existing system to that of equality.

6. Lihaf by Ismat Chughtai (fiction- short story): Chughtai explores female sexuality and lesbian bonding that is unacceptable by the society yet it exists. The narration opens up the reality beneath the veil.

7. The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir (non-fiction): “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”- this is the central idea around which this book revolves. It unlaces the ideologies that govern the subjugation of women. The subjugation is not only in form of violent repression but as a condition accepted by women and how the pre-defined roles aggravate this condition. For example, the role of a mother being the care-taker is performed with pride and it is natural for a woman to condemn her career to come back home and form a family. Gender is a produced category and the author criticizes the stereotypes that are culturally produced. Simone De Beauvoir sends out a message to women to re-examine their position in society.

8. The Color Purple by Alice Walker (fiction): This novel traces the double subjugation faced by the protagonist – Celie. First being a black, living in Georgia, she belonged to the race that was considered inferior in society. Secondly she was a woman who has societal norms dictating her obvious subjugation. The story traces Celie’s double fold struggle. First she bears up with the violence inflicted upon her, but later struggles her way out through the double fold subjugation. The novel also explores the essence of female bonding and homosexual desires.

9. Yellow Fish by Ambai (fiction- short story): Ambai is the pen name for the Indian feminist writer C.S. Laxmi. The story deals with the predicament of a woman who has no say in matters of female feticides, despite it being her own child. The narrator explains to us the position of a girl child in the society through the description of a yellow fish lying on the shore. The fish symbolizes the girl child and the sea symbolizes freedom. The woman imagines this fish as her lost child struggling to gasp water and she throws it down the sea giving it life. Though she could not save her own child, she wishes to save this fish. The very last line gives a sublime description of this act: “You can see its clear yellow for a very long time then it merges into the blue-grey-white of the sea”.

Feminists are often misunderstood. Women’s liberation is not about subjugating men, neither is it to shout out hoardings about patriarchy being bad. Feminism seeks a space for the 50% of the population that is repressed for unnatural reasons. The given books are but a fraction of narratives and accounts that are voicing the alternative discourse.

http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2014/10/books-to-understand-feminism/

Haryana khap leaders enter poll fray CHANDER SUTA DOGRA

Haryana’s khap panchayats, which often make headlines with their diktats on matrimony, women’s rights and personal freedom, have for the first time mobilised politically. Apart from a move to mobilise all khap panchayats to collectively support a pro-Jat party, several heads of khaps have also individually thrown their hats into the ring.

Last month, a spokesperson of the Sarv Jatt Khap Panchayat (SJKP), a powerful conglomerate of khap panchayats, tried to rally some 100 active khap panchayats behind one party, so that their votes would not get divided. These khaps command influence in the districts of Bhiwani, Hissar, Jind, Rohtak, Sonepat, Kaithal, Jhajjar, Mahendragarh, Palwal and Gurgaon among others.

But the initiative was abandoned when others connected with the SJKP felt that overt politicisation of these ancient social institutions would erode their respect in the countryside as they are meant to be apolitical. Other members opposed the move outright on the ground that since it was the Congress which got reservation for the Jat community, khap panchayats (mostly representing the Jat community) should not be supporting any other party.

From his office in the Jat Dharamsala in Jind, Kuldip Dhanda, convener of the Haryana Sarvkhap Panchayat, told The Hindu: “These social bodies are meant to solve the social problems of the community and we require the support of all parties for this. Khap panchayats are supposed to be non-political bodies and we will not allow anyone to participate in politics.” Notwithstanding this sentiment, at least two prominent faces connected with khap panchayats have bagged tickets from the INLD and the BJP. Others who failed to get ticket are in the fray as Independents.

Santosh Dahiya, heading the women’s wing of the Sarv Khap Mahapanchayat, is the INLD’s candidate from Beri, though she had recently expressed her aversion to politics. The BJP has roped in Shamsher Kharkara, leader of the Aithgama Khap from Meham. Head of the powerful Malik Khap, Baljit Singh has also joined the BJP.

In August, Tek Ram Kandela, heading the Kandela Khap, joined the Congress and sought ticket from Jind. When the party did not oblige him, he decided to contest as an Independent. “All the 28 villages of the Kandela Khap will vote en masse for him,” said a supporter in Kandela village.

Another khap leader, Sudesh Chaudhary, who shot into prominence as the first woman to be coopted into a khap panchayat as president of the women’s wing of Satrol Khap, left the INLD to join the BJP. The party has attracted many khap leaders in recent weeks.

The recent political churning in khap panchayats has prompted social activists to say that the “bogus social agenda of these so-called social institutions has been exposed.”

Why love is a four letter word JANAKI NAIR

TIME TO SPEAK UP: The December 16, 2012 gang rape in Delhi saw angry, voluble Indian women increasingly showing no reluctance in taking journalists, slum dwellers, uncles, fathers, judges and teachers to the court, or before sexual harassment committees. Picture shows students protesting in Chandigarh against rape. Photo: Akhilesh Kumar

TOPICS

crime

sexual assault & rape

social issue

That many Indian women are no longer the passive bearers of caste, religious and ethnic meaning, but the makers of meaning, causes dismay among those who feel their grip is loosening

The current jihad against love — for that is indeed what has gripped the imaginative fervour of the Hindu Right and its luxuriant undergrowths and counterparts — is only the latest and most visible instance of a virulent Indian misogyny. From its beginnings in the south to its tentacular spread in the north, the thick smoke screen of “love jihad” — by which Muslim men are alleged to have designs on Hindu women of an entirely dishonourable kind — disguises a far more familiar face, one that even many Muslims will recognise. It is a deep-seated fear among many sections of Indian men that too many Indian women have taken control of their lives at a much faster pace than expected, show little patience for the strictures of the past, and therefore need to be taught a quick lesson and kept in place. What better strategy than to create a fear which will unite a seriously fractured society, and bring it back to its familiar, hierarchical whole?

Two developments

At least two sets of recent developments have stoked the fears of an Indian patriarchy that is firmly entrenched in the rich soils of religion, caste or region, and class. December 16, 2012 ended the silence of women about sexual violence and harassment in schools, colleges, workplaces, roads: angry, voluble Indian women increasingly showed no reluctance in taking journalists, slum dwellers, uncles, fathers, judges and teachers to court, or before sexual harassment committees. She talked, she argued, she wrote, and she organised against that which had for too long been cloaked in the mysteries of silence.

Even more difficult for not only men but for some women too to accept were the recent signs of men and women breaking free of the stifling binds of official kinship. There was the much publicised violence with which the khap panchayat reinserted women, and some men, into kinship relations which they had rejected. To take some liberties with Foucault, an older “symbolics of blood” appeared to be giving way, slowly but surely, to a new “analytics of sex.” The bloody violence of the khap panchayat has been a warfare between generations and also between genders — beleaguered older and very Hindu patriarchs versus the young men and women who risked a great deal in dreaming of caring, sharing partners and a less hierarchical life. The ferocity of khap panchayat attacks on these men and women, and the prevarications of a state which did not doubt the moral authority of these actions, has done little to deter these daily transgressions.

These kinds of developments could not have come at a worse time for those whose generational and gender authority is being challenged. The time was ripe for fostering a new and more threatening fantasy to bring the strays back to the fold. As long as the fantasies of inter-caste or cross-class relationships were confined to the silver screens, women’s khushi was not interrupted. Real women are another matter — they are often “loved” to death by men who, once spurned, wield the axe, knife or acid bottle with deadly skill. Indian cinema has nurtured this version of loving, a unidirectional flow of feeling from man to woman, whose outcomes — eventual female acquiescence — are always predictable.

Makers of meaning

On the other hand, Indian feminism’s very success has produced some contradictory outcomes. An ever-eager and sophisticated state has altered its laws, policies and plans to accommodate the language of women’s aspirations. The corporate world has found it convenient to borrow the language of feminism to reach a large and ready pool of independent consumers — for some time now, International Women’s Day has been another hallmark moment. For a while, even Hindu Right wing parties chose to adopt the slogans and battle cries of Indian feminism. Yet, our public life is replete with irresponsible utterances and outrageous actions: no protocols of political correctness are observed by loose-lipped parliamentarians or legislators, judges or journalists, since there is no accompanying political cost.

Quite simply, many Indian women are no longer the passive bearers of caste, religious, ethnic or other meaning — but the makers of meaning. That is surely a cause for dismay among those who feel their grip is loosening. Large numbers of women have gained a measure of independence, freedom from domestic tyrannies, and have won some economic and legal liberty. Straw polls, discouraging editorials and sensational headlines notwithstanding, these hard-won gains will not be diminished.

Hence the need for a clarion call to place all Hindu women under a protection they did not demand; back to a lock up where they will be safe from the dangers of independent thinking and action. We should therefore take heart in these difficult times from the courage shown by judges of the Delhi High Court in naming a clear and present danger to married women: the matrimonial home. The judges, who have noted the frequency with which husbands are convicted for murder — no less than one in ten murder cases — have declared that even the streets of a dangerous city like Delhi may be safer for women than the private sphere of the home. This is a damning indictment indeed of a space which is currently being saved from the vividly imagined dangers of “love” and companionship.

(Janaki Nair is Professor of History at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU.)http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/why-love-is-a-four-letter-word/article6473438.ece

From Boston to UP's badlands: She came back to change India

October 01, 2014 12:28 IST

Nandita Shetty, a medical electronics professional was growing tired of her corporate job in Boston.

She wanted to do something that will change the future of India.

What she did next will inspire you too! 

Nandita Shetty left an exclusive job in Boston behind and moved back to India to participate in the growth story of this country.

She has extensive research experience working at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) at Harvard University in Boston.

But a sudden impulse to give back to the country brought her here to spend time with an NGO in Uttar Pradesh.

Following this, she enrolled herself in the Stanford Ignite programme, and was convinced to take the entrepreneurial plunge and build something lasting in India.

Tell us about your educational background.

My background is primarily in healthcare but I have multiple interests and have delved into more than one domain.

I started out as a software engineer at Philips Medical Systems, Bangalore, after I finished my undergraduation in Medical Electronics.

After a year, I got bored of converting pre-specified requirements to code and decided to pursue my Masters in Biomedical Engineering in Texas.

During this time, I got very interested in R&D and the brain.

After I completed my masters, I worked as a neuro-imaging researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/Harvard University in Boston.

My research involved studying the developing brain using imaging and computation methodologies, and understanding why the brain in children with autism is structurally and functionally different.

At MGH, I worked with some of the best scientists in the world, including those who invented cutting-edge imaging technologies.

My experience here was absolutely incredible and it significantly influenced my thought process and approach to problems.

After five years at MGH, I once again felt the urge to move on.

I moved back to India to get my hands dirty with grassroot problems and volunteered for a year in a remote village in Uttar Pradesh at a non-profit called Pardada Pardadi Educational Society.

I later joined Invictus Oncology, a Delhi-based biotech start-up, founded by a Harvard professor.

My role was that of a Business Development Manager.

A year later, in 2013, Stanford Ignite happened and it’s a whole new story post the programme.

What brought you back to India from Boston? Why did you plunge into entrepreneurship?

It was quite impulsive actually! I loved what I was doing but I wanted my work to directly impact people/patients.

I have also been very interested in the development sector and have tried to do my bit wherever and whenever possible.

It so happened that I attended a talk by Virender (Sam) Singh, founder of Pardada Pardadi Educational Society (an NGO based in Anupshahr, Bulandshahr district, Uttar Pradesh), at the MIT-India club.

Those 60 minutes of how a retired, DuPont South Asia head returned to his village and set up an organisation so incredibly amazing with new programmes and concepts being developed based on the changing needs of the society, got me so excited that I decided to take a year off and volunteer at his organisation.

Within four months of meeting Sam, I left Boston to work in one of the most notorious districts in Uttar Pradesh.

Living in the village, seeing how poverty affects a community, working with the local villagers and students, and seeing my work create an impact was one of the best experiences ever.

What made you enroll at the Stanford Ignite programme?

After I completed my year at Pardada Pardadi Educational Society, I joined the Business Development (BD) team at a Delhi-based start-up, Invictus Oncology.

I really loved working in a non-scientific role, and being part of a team that was translating a medical break-through into a usable product.

Wearing multiple hats, having brainstorming sessions with highly driven and motivated colleagues was very exciting.

It was in the middle of all this that I chanced upon the Stanford Ignite programme and saw it as a great opportunity to hone some of my skills.

The curriculum featured all the aspects I wanted to wrap my brain around and the length of the programme was ideal as well.

This prompted me to apply to the programme.

I was not only selected, but also received a fellowship to attend the programme.

What did you do after that?

Stanford Ignite gave me a wonderful opportunity to think afresh and constructively combine my multiple experiences.

Having had a diverse exposure across cutting edge scientific research, the development sector as well as a start-up environment, and being at a stage where I was trying to envision how I wanted to create an impact here on, I was able to relate to literally everything covered in the programme.

The best part about the programme was the class diversity -- it was absolutely incredible to hear and understand everyone's thought process, which brought in completely different dimensions to problems and situations as we progressed with the course.

The other great aspect of the programme was its pace -- when I first looked at the course details and the duration, I kept wondering whether we would be rushed through the different subjects. But that never happened.

We were taught by some of the best MBA faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and got good grasp of the concepts discussed.

Lastly, I must mention that although quite intensive, the programme is structured extremely well.

Tying business concepts with team venture projects was a brilliant way of going through the various elements of entrepreneurship.

The Stanford Ignite programme has been quite an influence on me. For someone who’s so incredibly passionate about healthcare, it sparked the entrepreneur in me and gave me the confidence to chase my other passion – food.

Tell us more about your start-up?

Interestingly, the start-up that I am working on is a direct outcome of the Stanford Ignite programme.

What started out as a one-minute pitch to the class and a team project has become a full-fledged venture, and is now inching closer towards a formal launch!

Like I mentioned, I am now pursuing another passion of mine: food.

The venture is about creating interesting concepts in food formats and dining experiences and we are going to be operating in NCR to begin with.

The best part is that two of my co-founders are people I met at the programme -- Rohan Rajgarhia, who is a Stanford alumnus and was a mentor on our team project during the Stanford Ignite programme, and Vasanth Kamath, who was my classmate and also a team member at the programme.

What is your ultimate goal and vision?

This has certainly changed post the Stanford Ignite programme.

I am a little more ambitious now and am better positioned to network and get people excited about my work and ideas.

I can’t specify at this point what my ultimate goal and vision exactly is but I do know that whatever I do is going to be passion driven and with a vision to make a meaningful impact.

What advice do you have for people considering the Stanford Ignite programme?

Ask anyone who has been part of the Stanford Ignite programme and I am sure they will echo what I say -- it's a roller coaster ride; it just pumps you up and leaves you feeling like a shaken can of soda.

If you have an idea and are wondering how to take it from the bench to business or if you are interested in getting a flavour of entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship, this is a course for you.

It's undoubtedly a great experience to go through.

However, I should also mention that you need to invest a considerable amount of time to maximise what you can take from the programme, so I would recommend considering the programme only if you feel you are ready for it at this point and you can commit the time -- not only for the sessions, but also for all the assignments and project work.http://www.rediff.com/getahead/report/achievers-from-boston-to-ups-badlands-she-came-back-to-change-india/20141001.htm

For a victim-centric approach FLAVIA AGNES

Closed-door proceedings place an additional responsibility on a judge to ensure that he or she is duty-bound to maintain the delicate balance between the rights of an accused for a fair trial and the rights of a rape victim for protection against the violation of her dignity

Court proceedings are generally held in open courtrooms to ensure transparency under the maxim, “not only must justice be done, it must also be seen to be done.” The recent trend of in-camera trial has evolved contrary to this maxim to ensure confidentiality and to lessen the trauma and stigma caused to a victim. It also provides protection from voyeuristic intrusion by the media.

A judge is duty-bound to maintain the delicate balance between the rights of an accused for a fair trial and the rights of a victim for protection against the violation of her dignity. Closed-door proceedings place an additional responsibility on the presiding judge to ensure this, as these proceedings are not open to public scrutiny. Within this constraint, the innovative survivor support programme of Majlis in Mumbai provides a ringside view of rape trials. It becomes an important social responsibility to share these insights with a wider readership in the hope of letting in a breath of fresh air within these cloistered spaces.

Read: The many shades of rape cases in Delhi

Double trauma

Apart from the actual incident of rape, what rape victims fear the most is the courtroom ordeal. What comes to mind is a slogan coined during the anti-rape campaign in the early 1980s in the context of the acquittal of two policemen. They were charged with the rape of a 16-year-old tribal girl, who was poor, in a police station, and had termed her a liar as there were no marks of injury on her body. “She was raped twice, first by the police and then by the courts.” This still holds true for many victims, despite the introduction of statutory changes and positive rulings of the Supreme Court. Within the hostile environment of a criminal court, the victim looks up to the judge to get the wrinkles out of what is a gruelling process. It is the sensitivity displayed by the judge which alone can save the situation.

On this subject, trial court judges try to pass the buck on to defence lawyers saying that it is they who need to be sensitised. However, it is entirely up to the judge to take control of the situation. A confident judge well-versed in statutory provisions and positive rulings will be in a commanding position to maintain the dignity and decorum of the court; only those who lack in confidence will allow themselves to be cowed down by the intimidating tactics of defence lawyers.

Issue of victim’s past

As an example, let me discuss the case of 16-year-old K, a victim of gang rape which happened in the pre-amendment era. She was dragged out of her paying guest accommodation in a slum to a vacant room down the street and brutally raped by five men until she fell unconscious. The first information report (FIR) could be lodged after about a month, and after the Herculean efforts of a social worker. The plea by the defence was that K was the daughter of a sex worker. And as she had a boyfriend, she herself was of questionable character. This background provided ample scope for her humiliating cross-examination by five astute lawyers. However, the presiding judge remained firm, relying on the path-breaking Supreme Court ruling in Gurmit Singh (1996), and did not permit any questions regarding the victim’s past sexual history.

In that case, while overturning the verdict of the two lower courts, which had acquitted the accused in a case of the gang rape of a 16-year-old schoolchild who had been kidnapped from her examination centre, the Supreme Court had ruled: “Even in cases where there is some acceptable material on record to show that the victim was habituated to sexual intercourse, no such inference like the victim is a girl of ‘loose moral character’ is permissible to be drawn from that circumstance alone. No stigma, like the one as cast in the present case can be cast against such a witness, for after all, it is the accused and not the victim of sex crime who is on trial in the court.”

The trial court judge ruled that questions regarding the credibility of the witness, or her past sexual history can no longer be entertained after this ruling. She further commented that it was not a case of a complaint of sexual assault arising out of a love affair, but was a case of gang rape. The judge ensured that the deposition of the victim was concluded on the same day, even if it meant a sitting beyond the court timings. The case finally ended in a conviction, despite the lapses.

On child victims

Let us contrast this with the case of an eight-year-old who lived in a lower class tenement, and sexually abused by a neighbour, a 26-year-old man. The incident lasted barely 10 minutes as the child heard her mother calling out to her and began to scream. The girl experienced great trauma and could not describe the incident even to her mother for two days.

During the trial, the child was cross-examined by a reputed criminal lawyer over three court dates, where her parents and she had to travel a distance of two hours each way. The busy lawyer either came late or pleaded his inability to complete the cross-examination as he had other matters to attend to. The court gave in to his request, disregarding the hardship being caused to the family of meagre means. The trial was in the designated Special Court, constituted under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, which stipulates special child-friendly trial procedures.

Read: Misunderstanding rape, condemning juveniles

Throughout her deposition, the child, of a small build, was precariously perched on the ledge of the witness box, so that the presiding judge could see her and listen to her scared and muffled voice. This case too ended in conviction. The manner in which the two trials were conducted shows that there is a world of difference.

The Sakshi Guidelines (2004) stipulate that in cases concerning children, the defence lawyer must first submit the questions in writing to the judge, and the judge, at his/her discretion, ask only those questions which are relevant to the incident. But these guidelines are seldom followed.

We have also witnessed shocking instances of judges, under the compulsion of having to complete the trial within the stipulated time frame, and in the absence of the defence lawyer, asking the accused to come forward and conduct the cross-examination. This is in total violation of the stipulation that the victim should not ever be made to face the accused during her deposition, and that a screen or a one-way mirror should be installed to shield her from the intimidating gaze of the accused.

Monitoring courts

Due to the presumption that a victim of sexual abuse would feel more at ease deposing before a lady judge, there is a stipulation that, as far as possible, only lady judges should be assigned to special courts. However, the belief that all lady judges are equally sensitive to victims, and that as a class, lady judges are more sensitive to victims of sexual crimes than men is not substantiated. It is not biology which determines sensitivity. Judges assigned to these courts must be specially exposed not only to statutory provisions but also to the mandatory protective measures that are required to be diligently followed before their assignment to these courts.

There is also a need to monitor the functioning of these courts and provide mechanisms of redress, in case of lapses. Closed-door trials cannot be construed as sacrosanct spaces beyond the scope of a social audit. Campaigners who were instrumental in bringing about these changes cannot abdicate their responsibility once the statute is enacted. The enactments are only the beginning of a long-drawn and challenging process.

Sessions courts are formidable and intimidating spaces meant for the police, criminals and their lawyers. To turn them into child-friendly spaces would require special ingenuity which those in charge of structuring these spaces usually lack. They need to be stripped of their high podiums, musty air and black coats and the space needs to be redesigned from the perspective of victims, especially children and those with disabilities.

Within their limitations, some judges have been using simple measures such as the setting up of a temporary screen or placing a cupboard in a manner so as to shield the victim during the deposition and allowing frequent breaks during the gruelling process of cross-examination. (We have come across instances where victims have fainted during the deposition.) Some judges also permit the victim to enter from the entrance meant for judges and allow them to wait in their own chambers until the matter is called out. These are small but significant gestures which will help ease the trauma of the victim.

While Delhi has successfully set up special courts for vulnerable witnesses, for the rest of the country, this is still a far cry.

(Flavia Agnes is a women’s rights lawyer and consultant to RAHAT, a collaboration between the Department of Women and Child Development, Maharashtra, and the Majlis Legal Centre to provide support to survivors of sexual violence.)

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/for-a-victimcentric-approach/article6420007.ece