Makar Sankranti marks the transition of the Sun into the zodiac sign of Capricon (Makara rashi) on its celestial path. The day signifies arrival of spring. Makara Sankranthi is a solar event making one of the few Indian festivals which fall on the same date in the Gregorian calendar every year i.e on 14 January, with some exceptions sometimes this festival is celebrated on 13 or 15 January. Makara Sankranti begins the harvest season and ends the northeast monsoon in South India. Apart from a harvest festival Sankranti is also regarded as the beginning of an auspicious phase in Indian culture. This festival is regarded as a ‘holy phase of transition’. It marks the end of an inauspicious phase which according to the Hindu calendar begins around mid-December. From Makar Sankranti any auspicious and sacred ritual is sanctified in a Hindu family. Scientifically, this day marks the beginning of warmer and longer days compared to the nights. In other words, Sankranti marks the termination of winter season and beginning of a new harvest or spring season.

Makar Sankranti is celebrated in Karnataka by exchanging pieces of sugarcane, a mixture of fried til (sesame), molasses, and pieces of dry coconut, peanuts and fried gram. On this auspicious day, people in Karnataka distribute Yellu and bella (Sesame seeds and Jaggery) and greet with the words” Ellu bella thindu, Olle Maathu Aadu” (Eat sesame seeds and speak only well). The significance of this exchange is that sweetness should win through in all the dealings.

In Tamilnadu it is celebrated as one of the major festivals. It is celebrated over four days. The festivities begin on the last day of the 9th Tamil month of “Maargazhi” and continue till the third day of the 10th Tamil month 0f “Thai“. It marks a new beginning; as, during the month of Maargazhi people abstain from all family celebrations and spend the entire month for devotion. On the day of Sankranti cows and bullocks are attractively decorated and fed ‘Pongal’- a sweet preparation of rice. Special prayers are offered. In the evening, the cattle are led out in procession to the beat of drums and music. A festival called Jalli kathu is held in Madurai, Tiruchirapalli and Tanjavur,all in Tamil Nadu, on this day. Bundles of money are tied to the horns of fierce bulls which the villagers try to repossess. Everyone joins in the community meal, at which the food is made of the freshly harvested grain. This day is named and celebrated as Tamilian Tirunal in a fitting manner throughout Tamil Nadu.

In Kerala, at Sabarimala where the Makara Jyothi is visible followed by the Makara Vilakku celebrations. The 40 days anushthana by the devotees of Ayyappa ends on this day in Sabarimala with a big festival.

In Maharashtra, Sankranti is celebrated by exchanging multi-colored tilguls made from til (sesame seeds) and sugar and til-laddus made from til and jaggery. Since sesame seeds have a greater ability to absorb and emit sattva(virtues) frequencies, consuming tilgul helps improve spiritual practice. People exchange tilgul amongst one another results in an exchange of sattvic component. Gul-poli is offered for lunch. And, while exchanging tilguls as tokens of goodwill people greet each other saying”til-gul ghya, goad goad bola” meaning “accept these tilguls and speak sweet words”. The primary thought in the exchange of tilguls is to forget the past ill-feelings and conflicts and resolve to speak sweetly and remain friends. Women folk invite other married women for a get-together called “Haldi-Kumkum” and given gifts (utensil, clothes, etc.). Women wear black sarees on this occasion. In Goa, celebrations closely resemble that in Maharashtra; the women folk celebrate ‘haldi-kumkum’.

In Gujarat, Sankrant is celebrated with lot of fun and frolic. People offer thousands of colorful offerings to the Sun in the form of beautiful kites. The act stands as a symbol for reaching to their beloved God, the one who represents the best. This festival thus helps the maintenance of social relationships within the family, caste and community. Kite flying has been associated with this festival in a big way. It has become an internationally well-known event.

In Punjab where December and January are the coldest months of the year, huge bonfires are lit on the eve before Sankranti and are celebrated as Lohri. Sweets, sugarcane and rice are thrown in the bonfires, around which friends and relatives gather together. The following day, which is Sankrant, is celebrated as Magi. The Punjabi’s dance their famous dance Bhangra, and then gather to enjoy sumptuous food that is specially prepared for the occasion.

In Bundelkhand and Madhya Pradesh this festival of Sankrant is known by the name “Sakarat” and is celebrated with great pomp & high spirits accompanied by a lot of sweets.

In Orissa, many tribes start their New Year from the day of Sankranti by lighting bonfires, dancing and eating their particular dishes sitting together. The Bhuya tribals of Orissa have their Maghyatra in which small home-made articles are put for sale. In Jagannath temple at puri this festival is observed as Uttarayana Yatra and Uttarayan Vandapana of lord Jagannath. People offer a special kind of newly harvested rice and sugarcane mixed with jaggery, grated coconut, banana, molasses, chenna (cheese), Khua, various fruits, dry fruits and milk called “Makara Chaula” to the presiding deity, the Sun God & lit solemn pyre for satisfying the evil elements plaguing household. This day is also observed in Jagannath temple, Puri with two popular Veshas (costumes) of Lord Jagannath i.e. Nabanka Vesha (one day before Makar Sankranti) and Makara Chaurashi Vesha (on the day of Makar Sankranti). In the districts of Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Sundargarh where the tribal population is more than forty per cent, the festival is celebrated with great joy and merriment.

Assamese call this festival as Bihu. The word Bihu is derived from the language of the Dimasa people. Bi means “to ask” and Shu means “peace”. The word Bishu gradually became Bihu to accommodate linguistic preferences. Bihu is also used to imply  Bihu dance and Bihu folk songs

In Kolkata, West Bengal, Sankranti, also known as Pous Sankranti after the Bengali month in which it falls, is celebrated as a harvest festival Pous Parbon. The freshly harvested paddy along with the date palm syrup in the form of Khejurer Gur and Patali is used in the preparation of a variety of traditional Bengali sweets made with rice flour, coconut, milk and khejurer gur and known as Pithey. All sections of society participate in a three-day begins on the day before Sankranti and ends on the day after. Goddess Lakshmi is usually worshipped on the day of Sankranti.

Many fairs are held on Makar Sankranti the most famous being the Kumbh Mela, held every 12 years at one of four holy locations, namely Haridwar, Prayag (Allahabad), Ujjain and Nashik. The Magh Mela (or mini-Kumbh Mela held annually at Prayag) and the Gangasagar Mela (held at the head of the Ganges River, where it flows into the Bay of Bengal). Millions take a dip in places like Ganga Sagar and Prayag and pray to the Sun God.

The significance of Makar Sankranti is that it is the time to remind yourself that celebrating movement is possible only when there is a taste of stillness within you.  It is a festival which teaches you that our real wealth is the goodwill and camaraderie with those around us, including the land on which our food grows, and the animals that help to make our work lighter.

Crime against women has become a major topic to be dealt with all over world in recent years. And, the crime is on rise than ever before. Why do men behave so sickly? For ages we have believed that men are stronger than women biologically; and this notion has been used to portray never-ending inequality and the division of labour between men and women, as women having responsibility for children and the family and men being the economic providers. So women are expected to underplay their roles even if they are smarter and stronger.

Do you’ll realize that often it is difficult for a man to understand how a woman thinks? How she feels? How she evolves? Unless a man gets closely influenced by the women in his life, he really does not till end understand the fabric of womanhood. Women process things differently and in their own way. When women face challenges, they look for solutions within. They push the boundaries to find solutions. I think those men who see their mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, next door girls in stronger positions and characteristically gutsy do try to understand a woman’s state of mind.  The brain circuitry for emotional processing is different in men and women. A new research suggests men really don’t understand women’s emotions.

Men suppress women because of their own insecurity. Rapes happen because some men are unsure of themselves, they are afraid of being rejected or deserted by the woman and they need to feel in control of the woman and therefore they rape. Rapes also happen because they go unpunished. Many societies hush up rape incidents. Our society believes men when they deny having raped a girl/woman and women are not believed when they shout rape. It’s appalling but true that rapes happen because rapists are secretly admired by other men who’d like to be rapists but are afraid of getting caught. Rapes happen because of rampant sexual desire, sexual frustration and the urge of men to control women. Men have this deep sense of insecurity and they are just not ready to accept women who disturb the balance of power.

Men have always blamed women after raping her. Instead of holding the rapist responsible for the rape, the society blames the victim. In court, defense lawyers can also use myths to attempt to undermine the evidence of the rape survivor; this prevents justice to the victim. The rape survivors feel too ashamed or too guilty to report the rape or to share it with friends and family. The survivor ends up isolated and does not get the support she needs to recover from the distress of the rape. Studies estimate that only one in nine survivors report rape. This means that most rapists walk freely in the midst of us, unpunished and they become habitual rapists.

There is no sure description for a rapist: a rapist can come from any social class, caste, creed, age, education or environment. It is difficult to generalize who might or might not rape based on stereotypes. There is no hard and fast rule as to who can rape and who cannot.

Nicolas Groth has described different types of rapes: in Anger Rape the rapist wants to humiliate and hurt the victim. The rapist expresses his contempt for the victim through physical violence and irreverent language. For these rapists, sex is a weapon to tarnish and degrade the victim. In Power Rape, the rapist rapes to compensate for his basic feelings of inadequacy and tries to gain mastery, control, dominance, strength, intimidation, authority and capability. The intent of the power rapist is to assert his competency. In case Sadistic Rape, the rapist gets a sadistic pleasure to see the anguish of the victim. For this rapist, sexual excitement is associated with imposing pain to his victim. In gang rape, a gang of usually young men commit the crime cause for them sexual aggression is often a defining characteristic of manhood in the group and is significantly related to the wish to be held in high esteem.

It’s observed that few men blatantly ogle at women; treating them like sex objects, staring at their lips, chest, legs, and butts and obviously undressing them with their eyes. Famous Indian movie director and screen writer Sai Paranjpye had said in one of her interviews that man undresses a woman with his eyes. When he looks at an attractive woman he thinks how hot she might be and how much fun she could be in bed instead of listening to what she has to say during a friendly conversation, a business meeting, in a seminar or even when he barely knows her. Well, some men are good at camouflaging their intentions.

Rape culture thrives in passive acceptance of female getting degraded. We should at once stop blaming the victim. Stop hyper-masculinity in our communities. We should hammer the real problem: when an instance of sexual assault makes the news and the first questions the media asks are about the victim’s soberness, her clothes, or sexuality, we should all be prepared to hinge to ask, instead, what teachings the rapist has received over their lifetime about rape and about being a man. Instead of asking the rapist what victim was doing/wearing/saying when he raped her? The right question would be ‘what made him think this is tolerable?’ Sexual violence is an invasive problem that cannot be solved by analyzing an individual situation.

We should understand this seriously that masculinity does not mean violence, brutality,   aggression and hostility. And especially masculinity does not mean torturing women.  When would men understand that rape is not a normal or natural masculine urge?

It’s high time that we globalize awareness of rape. I think men should be educated about rape right from their schooling; they should be educated about it’s after effects and the legalities. Only a small percentage of rape education programs are designed specifically for men, approximately 8%. Some programs have confirmed success in changing men’s beliefs and attitudes regarding rape and some programs have also reduced men’s self-reported likelihood to rape. There is evidence to suggest that some prevention programs might reduce men’s actual sexual aggression. Socially, our notion about when a child becomes an adult is very contradictory or inconsistent. The age of ‘major’ and ‘minor’ is defined by the law; but, at personal levels we define and re-define whatever suits us.

We must stop the abuse of child marriage, teenage pregnancy and domestic violence. Is there really a sense that boys and men are fed before girls and women, so that if there’s not enough milk to go around in a family, it goes first to the boys. In poor families boys are educated first. These double standards have spoilt things more.

 To prevent the crime rate further speedier delivery of justice will serve as an effective solution. From 1953 to 2011, rape cases all over the country went up by 873 per cent, the only way left is to deal with the problem efficiently, expeditiously and in a specific time frame. To drive home a strong message that the judiciary will respond seriously against crimes. Women are not valorized and this is common in all societies. This senseless importance given to men spoils their mentality. Legal experts point out that the notion that women are less important is widespread and accepted norm; this notion needs to be eradicated from grass root levels. A large section of society still accepts that women are there to service men, that men are justified in hitting their wives and contempt them. We can tackle the problem of rape only when we globally decide to put up with the sham that men are powerful than women.

Women are crucial for economic growth. If we decisively take measures to empower women in supporting their full participation in society, business, and knowledge management and at all levels we will find lasting solutions for many of the pressing problems we face in our world. Major challenges such as poverty, disparity, violence against women and girls, and insecurity will be addressed significantly. Compared to men, women spend the majority of their income on the well-being of their children, their siblings, parents and family.  Raising women’s participation increases economic growth. By ending enforced paucity of women in decision making, we will sustainably and significantly reduce acute poverty worldwide.

Businesses across the world are fostered and nurtured with lot of inter-woven laws, structures and policies. They are based upon cultures, societal norms, educational standards, training and development which are deeply ingrained in the society. Are men and women treated same while implementing policies in a state? Does a woman get equal chances as her male counterpart from credit institutions, from government when she runs her own business? Are both men and women on even footing? Are we ready to treat women entrepreneurs equally to male entrepreneurs, if we are not; we are knowingly stopping our economic growth. Economically empowering women may be one of the most impactful sets of development interventions, both in terms of growth and job creation. 

We are seeing this in our surrounding that women have been starting businesses at a higher rate than men. They are opting for home-based micro (less than 5 employees) and small businesses. What started as a way for women to keep them occupied and earn a small amounts though home-grown businesses has become a source of establishing their self-identity. Now, more women aim to express themselves creatively.

Women see the world through a different lens; they are more responsive and aware of problems from the grass root level, therefore they do things differently. They are gifted with the natural instinct of rearing and nurturing therefore they can solve problems differently without destroying much. If we are able to encourage even a fraction more women to turn their experiences and ideas into reality, I think many of the pressing issues such as climate change, environmental issues, pollution, inequality in distribution of financial resources, population growth, nuclear weapons, genocides, terrorism, racism, sexism, fundamentalism, water shortage, power shortage etc. could be dissolved faster. Today there is a greater need than ever before for green businesses and innovations all around the world, we need more women to clutch these sorts of opportunities.

Women have had to overcome barriers from beginning of history; whether in political life or the business sector and these obstacles will not disappear overnight. Women have a strong historical record when it comes to sustainability; we need to see that women get ahead. We need to see more creative solutions to encourage women entrepreneurship – it is indeed need of hour.

There are some countries which are taking faster steps in this direction. Recently, The Vancouver Board of Trade’s President and CEO Iain Black strongly recommended investigating ways to increase the involvement of women on boards and in senior management positions. In order to arrive at learned recommendations, The Vancouver Board of Trade’s Women Leadership Circle solicited input from local business leaders who have extensive corporate management and board experience and particular insight into how to address gender diversity issues in Canadian workplaces.

In 2012, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched the Center for Women in Business (CWB) with the belief that putting more women in leadership roles will bring companies a host of valuable benefits, including more active boards, improved financial performance, and greater diversity of thought. In March 2012, CWB hosted a number of companies and business leaders for a conference to share insights on why women are not making it to the very top. CWB brought together stakeholders and allies not only to share insights but also to hear from the assembled audience about the areas and best practices that merited better understanding and appreciation. Women currently hold just 4.2% of CEO positions in Fortune 1000 companies. At the same time, there are companies that defy this trend. These companies are actively advancing women to the highest levels of leadership, and as a result, they have more engaged boards and greater diversity of talent and ideas, for example Coca-Cola. McKinsey & Co is already conducting a research of Fortune companies in world that practice putting women in the top positions and reaping good fortune. They are partnered with Wall Street Journal for this yeoman issue.

In India, the new company’s Act 2013 requires at least one woman director on its board;under the rules notified by the Corporate Affairs Ministry, every listed company and those public firms having paid up share capital of Rs 100 crore or more should have at least one woman director on their board. It will be also applicable to entities with a minimum turnover of Rs 300 crore.

The International Finance Corp announced via a press release that women-owned enterprises are experiencing an estimated $300 billion credit gap. This needs to be filled immediately. So on Women’s Day this year Google took an initiative with their “Google for Entrepreneurs” it aims at finding new ways to give female entrepreneurs the boost they need in order to play a more active role in the business world. As a result, the tech giant has committed $1 million to 40 startup-focused organizations. With this project, Google is set to promote women’s participation in the technology space.

The World Bank’s program infused $600 million to support economic opportunities for women by kicking off a global project of honoring female entrepreneurs. The gift came right in the middle of celebrating Women’s Day 2014 and it has been accompanied by the IFC, which also invested $100 million and expects to collect $468 million from private and public investors and Goldman Sachs Foundation’s “10,000 Women” programme, which offered $32 million. Goldman Sachs, the powerful Wall Street investment bank, said the partnership deepens the commitment of its 10,000 Women educational program that promotes female entrepreneurship.

Today policy makers in the world are recognizing that they need to advance equal opportunities for women by removing structural barriers. And, once those are removed it will reduce inequality and spur inclusive economic growth. By supporting women’s equal representation in leadership positions in peacemaking, in communities, in politics, in business and in religious institutions, we will build a more just, peaceful and protected world.

We cannot afford to go slow on women empowerment; if we do so, the progress will remain    uneven and we will see a further down fall in progress. No country in the world has achieved equality between women and men and girls and boys. All those violations of the rights of women and girls are infuriating. Let us understand this right – we can no longer afford to hold back half the world’s population, we cannot suppress their positive energies any further. The 21st century has to be different for every woman and girl in the world. She must know that to be born a girl is not the start of a life of hardship and disadvantages forever. Together we must make sure that:  SHE is safe and secure from gender-based violence, she has Human Rights that are respected, including reproductive rights.  She must be empowered economically and in every way through education, she must be given same opportunity as her brother, she must be included in partaking and leadership.

To begin with on home front we must train our daughters to choose the right life partner; an unsupportive spouse is a liability for her creative instinct.  We should ingrain in her to be self sufficient while enjoying each day of her life. She has to learn to enjoy her presence as a woman. Educate her – let her study as much as she wants. Help her build her own network. Tell her the importance of entrepreneurship, mould her to be one. Encourage her to take decisions of her own. She must never limit her own skills. Women are naturally good at multitasking. They should be trained to do one thing at a time. Starting and stopping in the middle of things to concentrate on something else is frustrating. Let us liberate the girl(s) in our family to begin with.

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, there are 126 million women operating new businesses and another 98 million at the helm of established ones. Yet we face a huge equality gap. In only seven countries—Panama, Thailand, Ghana, Ecuador, Nigeria, Mexico and Uganda do women take part in business at rates equal to men’s; in some countries, like Pakistan, they barely take part at all. Even when women are active business owners, they do not utilize their probable capacity. Women own almost three in ten American firms, yet employ only 6% of the country’s workforce and account for barely 4% of business revenues.

Lets us start supporting women entrepreneurs, women farmers, women in households, and young women. Sectors with a high potential for wealth creation such as food security, or export promotion can offer particular opportunities for generating or expanding entrepreneurial and employment opportunities for women. For example, creative industries include a broad spectrum of subsectors; art, crafts, design, textiles, leather, furniture, perfumes and beauty products, food, and even community-based tourism related services that allow for innovative and expanded opportunities for income generation. UNIDO (United Nation Industrial Development Organization) projects in Bolivia, China, Pakistan, Panama and Peru have proven that creative industries can be a means for women to harness cultural knowledge and assets to generate wealth and income. Let us enhance women entrepreneurship and women’s participation in governance for a better and safer world.

I was always very ambitious; wanted a progressing career which brings with it money, name, fame fortune everything. Somewhere in my late 20s, I even wanted to marry and start a family. That happened in my 30s. I sit back and identify where I wanted to be – I wanted to be a Managing Director of my company; which I am not. But I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, an aunt, a daughter-in-law, a sister and though not a managing director (which I desired) I teach business management to budding managers.

Does a woman need to work harder to achieve success than a man? Yes, yes and yes. I am in total agreement with Indira Nooyi – Pepsi CO, CEO’s observation that the biological clock and the career clock of woman are in total conflict with each other. A woman has to plan her life meticulously to play her different roles at different times. She might or might not be able to justify all at the same time.

When world over the business houses are lamenting over issues like gender inequality in workplaces, boardrooms and the top slots in society – the question to think about – is there dearth of competitive women in world? Not at all; but she does need a supportive spouse and supportive family. And, let us accept, this “supportive” tag is in dearth for many.

As a woman climbs up her career ladder, she needs to figure out how she will play her multiple roles at her place of work and at home. She needs to navigate her married life, her social life, her personal life all simultaneously. When the woman’s career starts to take off; when she progresses in her profession, how does her husband handle it? The story is different for every woman. I mention here another factor; she has to battle jealousy and dirty games of her male counterparts as well.

Almost every working mom has this guilt that she’s not doing enough for her kids. Thus she has learnt to prioritize her activities and balance them which at times she pays a very high price for. There are lakhs of intelligent, smart and sophisticated women who had to scarify their jobs to keep their family happy. They had to say good bye to their flourishing jobs. For any mother (whether working or domestic) children’s well being comes first. There are dozens of parental issues which they need to sort out first.

A study confirms working women multi-task for more than 40 per cent of their waking time. The study also confirms mothers spend 48.3 hours a week multi-tasking – compared with 38.9 hours for fathers. And of course, mothers find multi-tasking a ‘negative’ experience which creates stress and anxiety.  So, with all that tireless effort is a woman really appreciated? Can she be good at everything?

I once again refer to Indira Nooyi’s interview wherein she said that a working woman can’t have it all.

A working woman rarely can maintain her saneness, her poise in battling societal prejudice, peer pressure, male insecurity and internal conflict in pursuit of her professional ambition.

]]> https://drvidyahattangadi.com/a-working-woman-cant-have-it-all/feed/ 0 https://drvidyahattangadi.com/why-there-is-a-need-for-zero-tolerance-for-crime-against-women/ https://drvidyahattangadi.com/why-there-is-a-need-for-zero-tolerance-for-crime-against-women/#respond Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:31:51 +0000 http://drvidyahattangadi.com/?p=527 Violence against women in India is an issue rooted in hypocrite societal norms and women’s economic dependence. Biased practices are underlined by laws favoring men. Inadequate policing and sluggish judicial practices often deny female victims proper protection and justice. Though we also see female participation in public life and laws have been amended, India still has a long way to go to make Indian women equal citizens in their own country.

A zero-tolerance policy imposes automatic punishment for violating of a stated rule, with the intention of eliminating undesirable conduct in a society. Zero-tolerance policies forbid persons in positions of authority from exercising discretion or changing punishments to fit the circumstances subjectively; they are required to impose a pre-determined punishment regardless of individual culpability, justifying circumstances, or history. This pre-determined punishment need not be severe, but it is always meted out.

Zero-tolerance policies are studied in criminology and are common in formal and informal policing systems around the world. The policies also appear in informal situations where there may be sexual harassment or Internet misuse in educational and workplace environments.

Today when Asia’s third-largest economy is now in its longest slump for a quarter century, and has to face too many odds due to lethargic decision making culture, I think zero tolerance is the need of hour. Well, the new Narendra Modi Government’s pledge of zero-tolerance for violence against women, and requisite steps to strengthen the criminal justice system for its effective implementation is applauded.

India seems to have been plagued in the recent past with loads of  horrifying incidents such as sexual assault and molestation; frequent news of gang rapes are a shame on our law and order. Women in this country are shaken to the core. Let’s stop making baseless arguments regarding our culture and ethos.  Another issue regarding the size and diversity of our country is being dragged a bit too much.

Violence against women comes in variety of forms such as domestic violence, dowry deaths, acid attacks, honor killings, rape, abduction, and cruelty by husbands and in-laws. One of the key challenges is the dowry practice; the bride’s family giving gifts of cash and kind to the groom and his family. Many times the groom’s family ill-treats the bride if such demands are not met with. To protect women against this threat the Indian government had passed the Dowry Prohibition Act and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act and cruelty under Sec 498A of the Indian Penal Code. In 2012, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), dowry deaths – or murders of women by the groom or in-laws because of unmet high dowry expectations – constituted 3.4% of all crimes against women. In other words, last year in India on average 22 women were killed per day because their families could not meet dowry demands.

Legal experts point out that many rapes go unreported. Due to “family’s honor” many complaint files are withdrawn and in many cases the police do not give a fair hearing. Medical evidence is often unrecorded making it easy for offenders to pass scot free under prevailing laws. India’s societal changes have been engineered by women getting access to education and jobs. However on the ground regressive notions and crimes continue to halt women from getting out of their homes and joining the work force.

Many activists argue that the rising number of women parliamentarians and the presence of many high profile women in India’s political parties and public offices will act as only ornamental if effective laws and mindsets are not altered to safeguard ordinary women.

To prevent the crime rate further speedier delivery of justice will serve as an effective solution. From 1953 to 2011, rape cases all over the country went up by 873 per cent, the only way left is to deal with the problem efficiently, expeditiously and in a specific time frame. To drive home a strong message that the judiciary will respond seriously against all such crimes. Let’s hope for the best to happen with the announcement by Narendra Modi Government to strengthen the criminal justice system for its effective implementation.

“One in three women may suffer from abuse and violence in her lifetime. This is an appalling human rights violation, yet it remains one of the invisible and under-recognized pandemics of our time.” – Nicole Kidman

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