WOMEN – 2011 - Indian Social Institute

that they would soon present the survey findings to the ministry of women and child development and
other policy-makers to urge them to make appropriate changes in policies and programmes to better
foster gender equality. In the survey, which found Indian men to be the worst offenders in terms of sexual
violence, more than 1,000 men from the 1,500 interviewed in India were from Delhi. The findings mirrored
the high incidence of sexual assault in Delhi: the capital witnessed 489 rapes last year. "Although the
survey has focussed on violence in the privacy of homes, it reflects the situation in public places, too,"
said Kalpana Vishwanath, project director of the Gender Inclusive Cities project run by Jagori NGO.
South Asia does fare quite poorly in terms of gender equality. Vibhuti Patel, a women's rights activist,
blamed the repression of sexuality in India for the high rate of sexual violence. "All the other countries
surveyed have more sexual freedom than India. Rwanda, too, has tribal culture so people are more open
and women's role in the economy is recognized," said Patel, who heads the economics department at
Mumbai's SNDT University. "In India, the age-old code of conduct has been to keep men and women
separate. So women are only viewed as sex objects," she added. (TOI, 07/03/2011)
‘Govt callous towards weaker sections, especially women’
Accusing the State Government of being apathetic, around 20,000 men and women would march to CM
House on the International Women’s Day for demanding answers to multiple demands of Dalit, Tribal and
marginalised communities. A delegation of Jan Pahel also set out to meet Governor Rameshwar Thakur
on Monday. “The Governor listened to our grievances and assured that he would forward our concerns to
the State Government,” they said. The dharna of the volunteer group “Dera Dalo, Ghera Dalo” continued
at Bhopal Board Office Square on Monday. Before the delegation set off for the Governor’s office, a Press
conference was addressed by community leaders and representatives from the communities who are
reeling under the impact of displacement, denial of their rights on common resources like land and forest,
undermining of the powers and rights of Gram Sabha and panchayati institutions. “We are demanding
that the State’s Chief Minister should at least listen to the demands of the oppressed majority that has
come together as part of a people’s alliance. We will march to the CM’s residence under the leadership of
women,” said Sarika Sinha, from Jan Pahel, at a Press briefing on Monday. The speakers included
demands such as right to land, forest and water as their basic entitlement, which cannot be taken away,
and said the so-called development focus is superficial. They said as long as basic violations of rights
continue, the talk of growth is meaningless. Jan Pahel is a platform of the excluded communities,
progressive individuals and mass organisations in Madhya Pradesh. The list of demands includes; equal
opportunities to the excluded communities, food security for all the excluded communities and
democratisation of society, economy and others. Talking about Tuesday’s agitation, group spokesperson
Narendra informed that denial of land rights mostly to the female hailing from weaker sections is the main
agenda of the protest. He claimed that post 2005, around 2,94,000 claims have been made under Forest
Land Right Act but the State Government has only accepted 80,000 claims till date. “We demand that
single females hailing from Bedia, Banchhda communities and women engaged in scavenging should be
handed land rights, which is not the case till date,” said Narendra. (Pioneer, 08/03/2011)
Women crew to fly Delhi-Toronto flight
An all-women crew will operate a 15-hour non-stop flight from here to Toronto on Tuesday to mark
International Women’s Day. The 11-member crew will not only operate the flight AI-187, but women
engineers will carry out the safety audit before the Boeing B 777-300ER aircraft flies out from the IGI
Airport. While Capt Rashmi Miranda will be the commander and Capt Sunita Narula the First Officer on
this commemorative flight, Harpreet A De Singh, chief of Quality Management Systems, will carry out a
Line Observation Safety Audit. The flight will be despatched by Rashmi Verma, a spokesperson said. The
airline will also operate flights on several domestic sectors with all-women crew tomorrow, he said. These
include flights on sectors like Delhi-Patna, Delhi-Raipur-Nagpur, Delhi-Lucknow, Mumbai-Bangalore,
Chennai-Mumbai and Bangalore-Delhi. Air India has a large contingent of 157 women pilots flying its fleet
of wide and narrow body aircraft on international and domestic routes. It has over 5,300 women
employees in its workforce. Interestingly, a flight of no-frill airline IndiGo was recently delayed by about
two hours when a passenger created ruckus saying he would not fly with a woman pilot. Airport security
officials took him off the plane, but he was allowed back only after an apology. Meanwhile, as part of the
centenary celebrations of Civil Aviation in India and to observe the Women’s Day, the Civil Aviation
Ministry will felicitate women aviators on Tuesday who have contributed significantly to the sector. Among
those to be felicitated are Capt Durba Banerjee, the first woman commander of an airline, and Chanda