Manthan topic: Walk to equality

Group Members: Saru Kohli Vivek Garg Shivang Singla Manil Batra Amit Walia

60 % of the Girls are married before the age of 16

Nearly 60% of the married girls bear children before

they are 18

125,000 women die from pregnancy and related

causes every year

Maternal mortality in India is the 2nd highest in the

world

They also suffer from…

Maternal Mortality

Women Trafficking

Malnutrition

Exploitative Practices

Child Marriage

Dowry

Gender Violence

Child Labor

Eve Teasing

Sexual Harassment

Family Abuse

& a lot more…

Women Empowerment- still an Illusion or Reality

What are the reasons for this sorry state of affairs ? Issues may be various and varied, however a few basic issues deserve specific mention :

Lack of awareness

Lack of social and economic empowerment

Lack of political will

Feebleness of accountability mechanisms

Lack of enforcement by the police force

Lack of gender culture

The question arises, how greater participation

of women in politics can be achieved ? Generally, the answer is suggested in the form of 'reservation'. However, mere reservation will not solve the problem unless and until women are given commensurate powers to function effectively and they themselves become more conscious and aware of their rights and duties.

As per Delhi Police, a woman is raped every 18 hours or molested every 14 hours in the Capital.

Delhi-NCR takes the top slot for crimes ranging from murders and rapes to dowry deaths and abductions.

In 1971, approx.2500 rape cases were registered while in 2011, approx. 24000 cases were registered, witnessing a jump of 870%.

Total incidences of crime against women in 2002 were approx. 1.46 Lakh and that in 2011 were approx. 2.28 Lakh.

Delhi constitutes of 2.4% of total rape cases held in india in 2011

The venture would need co-operation from the state government of Delhi and Delhi Police otherwise it would be very difficult to implement

We would have to start from convincing and securing funding from corporates and obtaining permissions from Delhi government

Run a pilot study by implementing say 5 vans on the Delhi streets and about 50 security men

If pilot works successfully, we would scale the project and cover entire Delhi-NCR region

During the pilot we would have to actually test the effectiveness of the system and check if it works to prevent crimes against women

It would have to be a continuous process of Implement Learn Improve

It could then be replicated in Mumbai.

FUNDING:

The organization would have to be funded through grants and donations from corporates, world organizations like UN and philanthropic association like Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

The project could have one title sponsor which would have to contribute atleast half of the setup and operating costs – famous corporate houses could integrate it with their CSR activities

ESTIMATED COST CALCULATIONS :

Personnel costs:

Assumptions

500 men stationed at important points in the city

Each van needs 3 people including driver

Van keeps 3 shifts of people to cover 24 hours

Total 500 vans on road and 30 admin people in the office to manage them

About 5000 people needed

Total personnel cost comes about 9 crores per month for the service

Vehicle price 7,00,000

Equipments per vehicle 1,00,000

Total cost per vehicle 8,00,000

Number of vehicles 500

Cost of the Fleet 40,00,00,000

Steps to be taken

Let us create a social organization under public private partnership model dedicated especially to the safety of women and to fight against all sorts of crimes against women in the metro cities

A creation of a parallel police system in public private partnership model dedicated to safety of women

Let us create a network of security personnel and security vans throughout the city of Delhi and Mumbai especially dedicated to women safety

It would be a 24 hours service in which private security men would be stationed at important and high crime places and security vans – similar to PCR vans – would roam the city of Delhi and Mumbai throughout 24 hours

It would have helplines, call and sms services and would evolve gradually to include more things

The organization would be a not-for-profit organization, could be in public private partnership model (PPP model)

It would leverage the latest technologies to fight crime and would have to get knowledge transferred from the police academies and organization from world over – FBI, Scotland Yard, London police and academic institutions dedicated to security

More steps to be taken (Cont . . . )

Women must become literate, as education is beneficial for them as well as their families. The family web is woven around the women. She has to be up to the mark and educated so that she could fend for herself and her family during the hour of crisis. The status of women would improve only if they educate themselves and grab every opportunity to become stronger and more powerful than before.

The discussion brings a major conclusion to light-the status of women could be improved by women themselves and nobody else. It is the modern era of satellites, achievements and technology-based gadget. Why should women be left behind ?

There should be a better and full understanding of the problems peculiar to woman, to make a solution of those problems possible. As these problems centre round the basic problem of inequality, steps should be taken to promote equality of treatment and full integration of woman in the total development effort of the country.

The main stress should be on equal work and elimination of discrimination in employment. One of the basic policy objectives should be universal education of woman, the lack of which tends to perpetuate the unequal status quo.

The new organization should help decrease the crime against women drastically

It would help reduce the already over loaded present police system and act as a helping hand to the existing system

It would also help women lead a socially better and respectable life

Thank you