Empower Women, Empower Humanity

For years now, the word ‘empowerment’ has been synonymous with gender equality, political stability, economic freedom, women’s entrepreneurship - some of the burning topics that come up for discussion, debate and deliberation time and again.

- Veena Gupta

Introduction

In a remarkable change from the women’s empowerment programmes that focused on independence and equal opportunity until few years, we suddenly find ourselves in the midst of discussions that seem to be grappling with the basic issue of safety and personal security.The brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedic few years ago and that too in the National capital itself shocked the country or rather leftus on a bleak note. The fatal victim was Nirbhaya. Once again, crime against women came into focus. Every woman deserves a right to live a life free from unnecessary fear and worry. Violence against women is an unfortunate reality of today’s scenario. While we hope it will never happen to us, the truth is that an incident of violence against a woman occurs approximately every 23 minutes in India.

It’s no surprise then that the paradigm has now changed from ‘empowerment’ to ‘safety’. From discussing ways to dealing with harassment at the workplace and highlighting laws that are in favor of women to talking about ways to make women feel safer on the streets — it’s back to the basics.

The key areas of focus that one needs to bear in mind at all times are as below:

• College campus safety & security measures with no scope for any untoward incident

• Sexual harassment at workplaces is a prime area of concern; due vigilance for the same

• Women safety in public transportation

• Child safety and preparedness against gender abuse in schools/ colleges

• Cyber space security & strict measures to be implemented