Team

Ek Pehel

aurat insaan hai

Every Womans Battle: A Battle we are losing
Shuchi
Srinivasan

Akshay
Milap

Deepika
Saluja

Anush
Mohan

Rajiv
Ranjan

Doctoral Students, IIM Ahmedabad

Gender Education Gender Sustainability Education (Research Interests)

The Harsh
Reality

Female
Foeticide

Dowry
Deaths

Sex Ratio
940

8391 in
2010

Rape
24000
cases
in 2012

Domestic
Violence

Lower
Voice

Unequal
Wages

94000
cases 10

33% Bill
Pending

Pay gap
05 is 57%

Skewed
Employment
Opportunity
Forced
Prostitution

Economic

Political

Socio-Cultural

Unequal
Asset
Distribution
Poor Land
Ownership

A Gender Unequal Society

marred by socio-cultural, economic and political inequalities

The Result

Gender Inequality Index (GII): Rank 129 out of 146, UNDP Report 2011
Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM): Rank 128 out of 177, UNDP Report 2008

Feminine

Docile
Subservient
Obedient

Gender

The Root
Cause

(Social Construct)

Masculine

Sex
(Biological Construct)

Assign Gender
Traits

Strength
Dominant
Imposing

PATRIARCHY

Glorified
Through

Religion
Culture
Norms
Values
Popular Culture

Disempowered

Two Indias: A Dichotomy

Women are a heterogeneous group and could be divided into two segments
The Empowered and The Disempowered

Problems

Economically
& Politically
Disempowered

Socio
Cultural
Dimension

Economically
& Politically
empowered

Economic & Political

empowerment through Voice
Mechanisms, Education
& Sensitization

BENEFITS

Dormant
Human Capital

Since the problems are different, the solutions too must be multi-pronged.
But we must understand that the Socio-Cultural Dimension is the single most
important barrier to women empowerment

Empowered

VISION 2050 A set of complementary SHORT TERM and LONG TERM Reforms implemented in a Time Bound manner

Judicial Reforms

Induce Element of Fear by

implementing Stronger
Penalties for crime against
women including Death
Penalty
High conviction rate and Time
bound Redressal Mechanisms
to enhance Respect for Law
Strengthening Criminal
Proceedings, involving young
student lawyers
Financial & Economic
Emancipation through Gender
inclusive Land Rights

No Micro-Management of
police officials by political
class
Overworked policemen to be
freed from political
engagements & VVIP
securities to focus on the core
job of policing
Pro-active policing
Competitive Remuneration
Agencification & Designing
Performance Indicators
Equal Representation of
Women in Policing
Strengthening Girl Child
Education with special focus on
self defense.

Political Reforms

Societal Reforms

Police Reforms

Educate young men and

women to see themselves as
equals. The solution begins at
home where parents need to
treat their children equally
Empathy towards Women
and each other
Family Support required to
raise voice against crime
It was just that my bottom was
pinched, atleast I wasnt raped
Such attitude of young,
educated, empowered women
needs to change
Creation of Role Models and
reinforcing the images through
Popular Culture

Designing modules issued by

NCW in collaboration with
eminent scholars, field
practioners
Outsourcing Gender
Sensitive Workshops to
NGOs
No politicization of matters
related to women abuse
Politics is dominated by
notions of PATRIARCHY.
Political Sensitivity is a
requirement to fight deep
seated institutionalized
cultural chauvinism
Platform for interaction
between the empowered
women and the masses

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Judicial and Police Reforms (Short Term Strategy)
PENALTIES: Issue strong penalties for crimes against women. The
cash inflow could act as an alternate Revenue Stream. Even crimes
like Eve Teasing would invoke a Penalty of Rs. 20, 000 subject to a
cascading rate depending upon the repetition of the incident.
INCENTIVES: Celebrate Heroes and reward them in cash or kind.
Why are people like Constable Kuldeep who fought bravely
against goons in Mumbai not spoken often.
LAWYERS: Mandatory Internship for ALL Law School Students in
Fast Track Courts. Make such national service as part of school
curriculum which would then be rewarded with a certificate. A
minimum of two such stints shall be mandatory.
AGENCIFICATION: Separate team for women issues & crimes.
Team should have an equal composition of men & women and
appropriate caste representation. Complete independence for
investigation & decision making. Incentivize teams of innovative
women practitioners

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Judicial and Police Reforms (Short Term Strategy)
NATIONAL PORTAL ON LAND RIGHTS: With an
incremental expenditure of just Rs. 10000, create a 1 year time
bound project for a monthly updated National Portal containing a
database of Land Records, Gender Wise details of Ownership and
Land Usage. Ask districts to upload scanned copies of land
documents & provide statistics of gender composition of
ownership patterns. To pass a law ensuring equal land ownership
by 2050
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Socio Political Reforms (Long Term Strategy)
TIME BOUND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BY 2040: Equal
gender representation (Caste Sensitive) in every public institution.
ROLE OF POPULAR MEDIA: Prime time slots must be
assigned to shows seen as gender sensitive and promoting and reenforcing positive practical gender images. Shows which re
enforce notions of patriarchy and subservience must be
discouraged through heavier taxation .

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Socio Political Reforms (Long Term Strategy)
THE ASLI MARD: Empowerment must begin with both men
and women at the same time. In all activities mentioned men and
boys must be involved. This would cure the mutation caused by a
patriarchal mind set.
DIALOGUE: Provision of a platform for interaction between
women from various walks of life. These women would
complement each other traits and also employ dialogue for solution
building.

EDUCATING HOMES: Children should be clearly made to

understand that the biological difference between a girl & a boy is
the only difference between them. This notion needs to become a
fulltime part of curriculum and reinforced though popular media
and cartoons.
DEVELOP A GENDER SENSITIVITY MODULE: In the
initial phases, this module would become a part of a mandatory
workshop to be attended by elected representatives prior to their
swearing in ceremony. To be made a part of student curriculum &
work ethics dictum

 We have offered a set of both Short term & Long term measures
which are complimentary in nature and ensure elimination of
notions of PATRIARCHY
These institutions are time bound, task oriented and will
dissolve over time because we believe that the very existence of
these institutions would re enforce the idea of patriarchy

SUSTAINABILITY

National laws or constitutional orders alone could serve as solutions for

ensuring law school participation, Agencification of police, Higher
Taxation for TV shows promoting patriarchy
A land portal could be started with an initial investment of Rs. 10 lakhs.
The gender sensitive module could be developed and exercised with an
initial investment of Rs. 25 lakhs
Increasing remuneration paid to police force must be a priority objective
in the 7th Pay commission

SCALABILITY

MONITORING
MECHANISMS

Participation and representation in all public

institutions, to ensure greater political and economic
voice
Rate of declining crime rates
Proportion of reported crimes

Notion of Gender Equity

Time Based Evaluation where the growth rates would be studied to deduce
progress

CRITERIA

 Popular presumption says

that Matriarchy is the
answer to Patriarchy
Lack of Political Will:
Present inertia to take
stronger action against
crimes against women is a
product of political and
diplomatic concerns.
Sustainability of initiatives
No Passing the Buck: The
Buck stops at the woman
herself
Potential Corruption
with respect to Penalties
Lack of adequate
Training, qualified
Trainers and Equipment

Conceptual
Challenges

Implementation
Risk

Mitigation
Factors

Our proposal is simply

Humanarchy
A mass movement to
garner Signatures from
across the country where
politically controversial
issues like Death Penalty,
Castration could be raised
Restructuring educational
curriculum depicting
Women as Equals
Leveraging Print and
Visual Media: Social
marketing to repeatedly
reinforce positive
behaviour and empathy
towards women
Online Payment Portal
Provision of
Technologically Advanced
instruments, tracers, use of
ICT for training

REFERENCES
http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_20072008_GE
M.pdf
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?215610
http://www.ted.com/talks/jackson_katz_violence_a
gainst_
women_it_s_a_men_s_issue.html
http://guardianlv.com/2013/09/rape-statisticsmuch-greater-than-reports-reveal/
http://www.medindia.net/health_statistics/general/s
ex-ratio-in-india-2011.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowry_death
Engels. Friedrich(1884, 2010) The Origin of the
Family, Private Property and the State. Penguin
classics
Aggarwal.Bina(1994)A field of one'sown.
Cambridge university press.New Delhi
http://www.wikigender.org/index.php/Domestic_Vi
olence_in_India
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/india/docs/india
_factsheet_gender_n_social_exclusion_indicators.p
df
http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_20072008_GE
M.pdf