We need more women in public spaces

A brilliant article by "KALPANA VISHWANATH"

Pink autos, pink taxis, pink signages in the metro -- when did pink becomes the colour of Indian women? Indian women wear a range of vibrant colours. The pink-blue divide is a recent western import. But the broader question: Do we need pink autos and taxis? Would this ensure safety of women? Will seperate spaces for men and women ensure safety? In fact government schools in Delhi are all segregated. There is no evidence that this leads to greater safety. If boys and girls from a young age are not given the opportunity to interact with each other in a healthy and normal atmosphere, every interaction becomes fraught.

I  certainly see the benefit of having more women drive autos, taxis and buses, work as bus conductors, work in petrol pumps, in general be visible in public places. Having more women circulate in public spaces is good because safety audits have shown that having more women in public spaces makes the space safer for everyone. Both men and women find gender-diverse spaces safer. A park used by men, women and children certainly seems safer than one which is male dominated. So the government should create the conditions whereby more women are able to move freely in public spaces. The Delhi Transport Corporation recently publicized that they have their first woman driver. They must now find ways to not only encourage but make it a priority to have more women as drivers and conductors. While women-only spaces such as the women's compartment in the Delhi Metro must not be seen as the final solution to the problem of safety. I concede that it is an important strategy in a society where women feel unsafe. It is important at this time to have some seperate spaces, but they must be part of a larger basket of solutions that also address gender inequalities and gender violence.

The message that we are giving by only looking at segregation as a solution is that a society without sexual violence is not possible. What we are saying is that it is not possible for women and men to live in spaces which are mutually compatible and safe. We are also condemning all men as predators. In fact many men do not inflict sexual violence on women and we need to figure out how to build a society where this is the primary reality. What we need to do is to begin to address the roots of inequality in our societies. We have to do the hard work of creating a more equal and just society and there are no short cuts and easy solutions to achieve that. Along the way, we may need to do many things to improve women's experience of everyday life, but the goal remains equality.

What It Takes To Succeed

                                                              POSITIVE THINKING

Think About This :-

*  Beethoven was told by his teacher that as a composer, he was "hopeless"?
*  Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper because he had "no good ideas"!
*  Thomas Edition was told that "he was too stupid to learn anything"!
*  Michael Jordan was dropped from his high school basketball team!
*  Ray Krok failed as a salesperson before discovering the idea for McDonald's!


  Each of these people were positive thinkers. They believed in themselves and were determined to succeed.



  We often read about successful people in history. What was it that made them successful? The answer is, they had 'What it took to Succeed!' Although most successful people have skills, talents and characteristics that help them to succeed, when you look at these skills and talents, you will realise that you possess many of them yourself! These are thr things you do easily - these are your strengths! When you find your strengths, develop and use them, so that you too will be someone your people will look up to!

A Mithila Festival

The people of Mithila celeberated age-old festival, Jud-Shital, with traditional gaiety and fervour on Wednesday, on the first day of Baisakh. In the festival people receive water on their heads from their elders. In common parlance, Jud-Shital festival consists of two words, 'jud' which means blessing and 'shital' which refers to coolness. Hence, this festival, as its literal meaning suggests, is observed by people, offering blessing to their juniors, by putting water on their foreheads.

According to Manchan Jha, a priest at Radhakrishna temple of Darbhanga Raj, it is a festival which highlights the significance of water, plants, ponds and cleanliness. "Traditionally, it was observed for cleaning sources of water such as ponds and wells. That's why people which is still prevalent in rular pockets of Mithila and terai region of Nepal. Sadly, the festival has lost some of its original spark of late as many folks have stopped observing this important ritual," Jha said. People woke up early in the morning with cold water, kept overnight in 'lota' to be splashed over one's head from family elders. It is customary to pour water and irrigate trees and plants especially the mangoe plant so as to give it a new lease of life. It is mandatory to eat rice and 'badi' (spongy receipe made from gram flour), that had been cooked and left overnight to cool with chutney of raw mangoes.

"The festival still remains a lot of values to socialise and promote conservation of nature," said Manikant Jha, a Maithili writer and programme anchor. "We used to go out and play in the mud with each other only to wash ourselves in neighbourhood ponds afterwards. Not to forget that the Jud Shital festivity is protected by 'satuwain', being observed a day before in which people eat 'sattu' in the breakfast," he said. "Tradition has it that allthe sources of water, be it tanks or wells or any other such sources; it was cleaned on the Vaishakh Sankranti every year in Mithila. Not to forget hunting excercise in neighbourhood orchard and wrestling competition invariably organised in villages on the occasion," nostalgically recalled noted Maithili poet Jaiprakash Choudhary Janak. This tradition seems to have been gradually disappeared with the advent of modern lifestyle.