WOMEN

A traffic policewoman in Chennai is no less than Wonder Woman, battling the city's heat, traffic and pollution with great strength; and when you violate traffic rules, she wields her lasso to catch you. "A little less than 1% of the traffic police force is made up of women," says S Rajendiran, Joint Commissioner of Traffic Police (South). "Despite the small number, the force is very motivated and competent in what they do." We catch up with R Bagavathi, a woman traffic police constable (PC) in Chennai, to discuss her journey as a traffic woman PC in a role which…

In September 2022, a lawyer, while traveling to work, was molested inside a local train. She shared her ordeal on Twitter, in a detailed thread that outlined not only the incident but her experience as she tried to report it to the police immediately after the incident. At the time of posting, police negligence towards her case pushed her to take to social media. Earlier in 2022, police data revealed that there was a sharp rise in sexual assault cases in the city in the last five years. Crime against women rose from 1,194 (reported) cases in 2017 to 1,541…

The critically acclaimed movie Thappad evoked a wide range of responses to how the protagonist Amrita dealt with an instance of domestic violence, a slap by her husband in a social setting. While Amrita had the awareness to recognise the slap as domestic violence, the agency to decide for herself, financial support and a family who understood her decision, many women in Chennai, who face domestic violence, find themselves alone in this fight. The spate of crimes against women in cities like Chennai continues unabated. Now and then we read or hear of a new incident, more brazen, brutal and…

“In 2013, a woman called Geetha came to our studio. She thanked us profusely for making her life peaceful as her husband had stopped drinking because of the work of Anna Community Radio,” recalls Malliga Kaliappan, who has been an RJ at Anna FM for 22 years. "Geetha's husband had learnt about the ill-effects of alcohol consumption due to the anti-liquor awareness programmes we carried," added the RJ. Airing at 90.4 MHz, Anna FM is a social initiative taken up by the Educational and Multimedia Research Centre (EMRC) of Anna University since 2004. The community radio has touched the lives…

Archana Yadav of Mumbai is an excited soul today. In just a few days, she will be starting classes under a free skilling programme offered in Kandivali under the Skill India initiative and hopes that it will help her secure a much-needed job in the domain of nursing. Archana knows the trials of having to look for a job without formally acquired skills or certification. Pre-pandemic she had been working as an unpaid trainee in an orthopaedic clinic in Mumbai, in the hope that the skills acquired in this position would help her get a better job in the future.…

On January 10th, a 19-year-old teenager shared an incident of domestic violence in Mumbai on the city-based website Safecity, which encourages citizens to report all kinds of violence. “My friend has an abusive household where her mother was always beaten up. It hasn't changed and due to lockdown, things had gotten worse as they couldn't get out,” she said. Like her, many others have been reporting and sharing incidents of violence on the website. So far in 2022, over 20 citizens have reported domestic violence cases in Mumbai anonymously on Safecity. Indeed, domestic violence cases in Mumbai have risen. In the…

This is the second of a two-part story looking at how women construction workers are disproportionately affected by air pollution and other work place related issues. Read Part I here Women workers in the construction sector, whom the Mahila Housing Trust spoke to in connection with a report they are working on, said they preferred construction work over other occupations for a variety of reasons, one being the higher daily wage rates it offers as compared to other occupations. According to a woman construction worker from Bakkarwala, “we prefer to work at construction sites since we get a daily wage…

This is the first of a two part story looking at how women workers in the construction industry are disproportionately affected by air pollution and other work place related issues. Women workers in the construction sector, the second largest employer of women after agriculture, are disproportionately affected by issues like air pollution. Not only at their work place but also at their homes. Many women construction workers suffer from illnesses like breathlessness but delay treatment due to the lack of options before them. “There have been no studies carried out about the health impact of construction activities on the workers,”…

A little discussed but horrifying statistic is getting lost in all the analysis of the effects of the total lockdown during the 2020-21 pandemic. Over 5000 women had complained to the National Commission for Women (NCW) of facing domestic violence in 2020. As compared to 3369 domestic violence complaints during 2019-2020. An NCW report adds that during 2020-2021, the number of such complaints had risen to 6049. The reason was obvious — more women faced abuse and violence as they were confined to their homes with their abusers. Globally, fewer than 40% of women who experience violence seek help of…

“The idea is to make Chennai, a welcoming city, as far as all genders are concerned,” says Raj Cherubal, CEO of Chennai Smart Limited. He was talking about the ‘Gender Lab’ initiative of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), which is aimed at improving the safety of women and other gender minorities in public spaces and ensure easy accessibility for all, in these spaces. In the words of Raj, it aims to make public places in Chennai more “gender sensitive”.  On September 30th this year, the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank had formally approved a $150-million programme to…