A friend called up yesterday. She wanted to talk about something important. (Just for the info, she is a fresher and works for a highly reputed IT company with a sprawling campus in Pune). She started talking about how her team of 15 had just two women and how the entire team was biased towards men. So much so that, the team (the men folk) would do all the generally office time pass activities like planning for a lunch out or a tea session without so much as asking the two girls. What was even more surprising was that the Manager of the team was also party to all of this. If this was not enough, one guy in the team abused my friend over some silly issue, asking her to “Get out” of the cubicle. When this matter was taken to the manager, he laughed it off as a joke gone bad! 

This is not a one off incident of the kind of bias women folk have to go through in their companies.  I have worked in IT companies before and I could sense this all the time. Usually, the bias depends on the number of women in your team. If it is equally balanced, then in all probabilities, you will not have to face the brunt directly. But, if it is not, you will face this… either in subtle forms (like not being invited to team gatherings) or in more crude ones (like the one with my friend) or worse, cases of exploitation and sexual harrassment by office colleagues.

Now, I am sure while reading this, a lot of you will be nodding your heads – Gender bias is soo common in companies (I will be talking about companies in India here) that if you have not faced this on your own, you would have definitely known someone who did.

While, the number of women passing out of Engineering colleges is increasing at a good rate, the gender ratio is still around 80:20 in favour of men. Thus, the number of women who get into companies is another 60% of that. The remaining either settle down into marital bliss or go for higher studies. The number is 14% as opposed to 1% in 1970. So, things have obviously improved and with women like Lalita Gupte, Kalpana Morparia, Anu Aga, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Simone Tata paving the way, the future definitely looks brighter!

Despite all this, the sad reality is that… Even though we have come all this way, the road ahead is not easy! We have come a long way, but we have a longer way to go. The time to sit and listen to these stories, as if they were fables, is long gone. We now need to sit back and take charge of the situation in hand. The question we need to ask here is that

What is it that we can do to make things better?

• Make sure that your company has a policy against “Sexual Harrassment”. If they do not, you should bring it to the notice of the HR and explain to them the importance of having a law abiding policy, which in turn, makes this a criminal offense.
• Before joining a company, try to understand their take on women in the corporate world. If their thoughts do not match yours, there is no point working for them anyway!
• If you happen to work in a team dominated by men, make sure your manager knows your take on gender bias. If, however, you get a feeling that he does not appreciate it, you can always take this up with his manager or the HR. Make sure, they know that you cant be messed with. (On a lighter note, the girls in the team can get together and invite themselves to whatever little gathering the guys may be having. They may find it awkward a few times, but then will slowly get used it )
• Apart from the things you can do in your office area, you can create awareness amongst the people you meet every day – like friends and family. Try and personally take up the onus of educating a destitute girl child. There is nothing more satisfying than playing a small part in shaping the career of someone.

These are the few things that I could come up with. What is your take on this? Have you faced the glass-ceiling before? If you have, what did you do to overcome it?

To end this on a positive note, I would sincerely urge all my readers to take this up as a personal thing – Please do not let any kind of injustice happen in front of your eyes. If you see someone being victimised or someone being the bully, make sure you make it known to the concerned authorities. If you dont do it, nobody else will. After all, it is only with a small step that we can hope to build a better world!

I would also like you to put down your own ideas on What can be done? At the end of this, I will make a consolidated list of all the points and put them up here for people to read. That ways everyone can benefit out of our collective knowledge.

Some good articles on the topic:

Breaking through the glass ceiling: Women in Management
Breaking the glass ceiling
Breaking the Glass Ceiling – Reaching for the Top with Everyday Tools
Women still struggle to break through the glass ceiling

Cross posted from Indian Homemaker’s Blog.

In this age, women trafficking is as prevelant as ever! People are shamelessly putting their daughters for sale on websites!

A recent addition to this sorry tale is Rafiq Qureshi, father of Rubina Ali, the child actor who played the role of young Latika in Slumdog Millionaire. He wants to move out of the slums in Mumbai and hence is cashing in on the fame of the innocent 9-year old.

For more info, read here!

1 December, 2008: 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day

The theme for World AIDS Day 2007 and 2008 is “leadership”. Leadership was selected as the theme for World AIDS Day to encourage leaders at all levels to stop AIDS. This year’s theme for World AIDS Day is ‘Lead – Empower – Deliver‘, building on last year’s theme of ‘Take the Lead‘. This theme will continue to be promoted this year with the campaigning slogan, “Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.”

According to NDTV Doctor’s article, this means:

• Leaders in most countries from around the world now acknowledge the threat of AIDS, and many have committed to do something about it. As of 2007, nearly all countries have national policies on HIV. However, despite these policies, most have not been fully implemented and many lack funding allocations.

• While treatment for HIV and AIDS has improved and become more widespread since 1988, many still do not have access to it – in 2007 only 31% of those in low- to middle-income countries who need treatment received it.

• Despite HIV awareness now reaching nearly all areas of the globe, infection rates are still happening 2.7 times faster than the increase in number of people receiving treatment.

• While the number of countries protecting people living with HIV continue to increase, one third of countries still lack legal protections and stigma and discrimination continues to be a major threat to universal access.

• More broadly, real action on HIV and AIDS and human rights remains lacking. Legal barriers to HIV services still exist for groups such as women, adolescents, sex workers, people who use drugs, and men having sex with men, and programmatic responses promoting HIV-related human rights have yet to be prioritised.

• To achieve this goal, leadership and action is needed now. Governments must deliver on the promises they have made. Communities must encourage leadership of its members. Individuals must feel empowered to access treatment, to know their rights and take action against stigma and discrimination, and to know and use methods of prevention against receiving and transmitting HIV.

According to 2007 stats released by WHO, an estimated 33.2 million people are now living with HIV, out of which about 2.5 million were newly infected with the virus and 2.1 million died of AIDS the same year.

Related Articles:
World AIDS Day 2007
Download World AIDS Day 2008 Posters
Add Red Ribbon Widget to Your Blog
More HIV Testing to Save Babies

The advent of Commonwealth Games in India in 2010 instils fear in me. Yes, fear more than the pride. For more than a year now, I have been reading about Delhi Government’s mega plans for Commonwealth village. Of course, government’s decision for Commonwealth village is commercially driven. This article will tell you how much Commonwealth Games Village would be worth.  The construction of Commonwealth Games village started in August this year amidst protests from various quarters.

In a capital city, where we always face a power and water crisis, building new luxurious villages is nothing out of norm. The thing that Government got wrong this time is that it plans to build its Commonwealth Games village on Yamuna floodplains. If Yamuna floodplains are stifled with permament structures, Delhi will be prone to floods in the monsoon. Because Yamuna will not be able to manage excess water without the spacious floodplains. National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) report clearly states this fact. Yamuna has always been flood-prone. Just this year in September, low-lying areas of Yamuna have been evacuated.

We still haven’t really recovered from catastrophic Bihar floods, yet we already have plans to jeopardise ecological balance in National Capital.

Farmers have been protesting furiously against it. But government has put cotton balls in ears. Various groups and NGOs like farmer’s group, Yamuna Andolan Samiti, Yamuna Jiya Abhiyan as well as a NGO, Yamuna Bachao Andolan have been vociferously campaigning to save Yamuna.

Apart from the fact that permanent structures can not be built on the river banks, Yamuna riverbed is also centre of seismic activity. We will not only have floods and earthquakes, building structures on riverbed could cause further shortage of drinking water.

You must now be wondering, if this project is so perilous, why is Government going ahead with it? Government is so hell-bent to go forward it has not bothered to get basic approvals. According to this report, both Yamuna Standing Committee and Central Ground Water Authority. This CNN/IBN article lists all the documentary proof to prove that Government has no approval to go ahead with the project.

Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, despite all anomalies, has audacity to say this, “Show me another city in the world, which has not developed its riverbanks. Development has to take place.” My vote certainly does not go to her this time.

Current status: This month High Court has issued a new order. Although it refused to stay the construction of Commonwealth Games Vilalge, it established a four-member committee to review the project. The Committee is supposed to submit its report within three months of its constitution. All construction under Commonwealth Games Village project will be subject to review by Committee. But it has no assurance for me or any other citizen. Atypical all Indian committees set up by judiciary, I expect the report to be delayed. Chances are Commonwealth Games Village would have already done the damage by the time the Committee finalises its report.

Sign this petition to save Yamuna that has been addressed to the Prime Minister. I am surprised only 348 people have signed it. I am surprised that Greenpeace that fought with TATAs to save turtles has not taken up this ecological issue against the Delhi Government.

Related Article:
A Long Fight to Save Yamuna
A Post from Delhi Greens

A fundraising project, called Rags-to-Pads, to bring sanitary pads to rural Indians requires your attention and donation.

Poor Indian women risk vaginal and urinary tract infections (and thus illness, incontinence, and infertility) during every period from puberty to menopause. You can find more information at http://ragstopads.com/.

Rags-to-Pads Initiative

This initiative is by Jenny and Dave, who also write at Our Delhi Struggle blog about their experiences in India. You can read more about it on their blog here. Their target is to collect 5000$ for the project. Your donation will help the Pardada Pardadi Girls School create a business that:

• provides extremely low-cost pads and
• creates employment opportunities for women in a region that has almost none

If you can not donate, please spread the word through your blog or email.

RJ has vowed to use CFLs, I too have been chief advocate of CFLs myself. I have also posted a Common Craft video that tells us CFL, though expensive, prove useful in longer run. But in my own house, I am having trouble to implement CFLs. Reason? CFLs do not last long. In 6 months, 3 CFLs have perished. My grandfather is now steadfast to avoid CFLs as he is convinced they are bad quality. Of course, I tried to reason with him, explained my reasons. But he refuses to invest in CFL that he thinks is waste. Yet I invested in more CFLs. Our argument did not finish here.

But I had two new questions in mind. One, I wonder are we not getting good quality CFLs in market? Do your CFLs last long?

Second, why does not government take a step to phase our incandescent bulbs and focus energies on CFLs. That way none of us would use incandescent bulbs. Most countries are phasing these out, and some countries have already banned. Greenpeace, in India, did start a campaign against bulb manufacturers. Though CFLs are mandatory in India in all institutions including hospitals.

Anyway, I had forgotten the argument at home. My grandpa reminded me of our argument when he told me CFL also required careful waste disposal (thank our newspapers!). CFLs have toxic mercury, apparently a Swedish firm has been authorised to collect and recycle CFLs in India. If we are not careful with disposal of our CFLs, it may be part of landfill site or may contaminate public water system.

Dinsan also sent me a link about people living with zero waste. Other time I complained about lack of gradens in my city, Shefaly sent me this interesting article about vertical farming.

May we make zero waste, dispose what we must carefully, plant as much as possible.

Olive Ridley turtles is usually found in the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It is one of the smallest species of sea turtle and are listed in the Endangered Species Act of the USA.

In the Indian Ocean, a major nesting ground for the species can be found in the Indian state of Orissa. Beaches in Devi, Gahirmatha and Rushikulya are known nesting sites for the L. olivacea Indian Ocean population. In 2007, around 130,000 turtles nested on the beaches of Gahirmatha. Unfortulately, the beaches of Orissa provide one of the last nesting grounds of the Olive Ridley turtles in the world.

Olive Ridley turtles rely on an inexplicable, in-built navigation system that guides them, when it’s time for them to reproduce, back to the precise coast on which they were born. Hence, protecting the nesting ground becomes imminent to the survival of these endangered species.

These turtles have one more threat to face now: The Dhamra Port which is a Joint Venture between Larsen & Toubro and Tata Steel. The tatas who have been the source of inspiration for so many are now being criticised by organisations like Greenpeace, Wildlife Protection Society of India and the Orissa Traditional Fishworkers’ Union.

This is not the first time they are being criticised, they have been under the scanner before also.

It is time for you to support the cause of Turtles and help protect them by joining the march, or writing to the Tatas.

Save the turtles!

I am sure title was bit startling. But it is a unique way to undo the societal pressures of maintaining a advertisement and beauty-pageant inspired insecurities about your own body. Read it from the this page of National Organization for Women (NOW) Foundation:

Do you love what you see when you look in the mirror?

Hollywood and the fashion, cosmetics and diet industries work hard to make each of us believe that our bodies are unacceptable and need constant improvement. Print ads and television commercials reduce us to body parts — lips, legs, breasts — airbrushed and touched up to meet impossible standards. TV shows tell women and teenage girls that cosmetic surgery is good for self-esteem. Is it any wonder that 80% of U.S. women are dissatisfied with their appearance?

National Organization for Women Foundation has launched this unique 2009 love your body poster contest where you will create posters “that demonstrate beauty is not limited by body size, body type, ethnicity, age or physical appearance.” Great! Isn’t it? So when are you sending your entries there? Deadline is December 1, 2008.

October 5 is officially Love your Body Day 2008.

We have in past written about Child Sexual Abuse.

One of the grouse our readers have expressed is about us not a providing solution to a problem. We agree writing about a issue is only the first step toward awareness. But acting on the solution is the most important next step.

One of our friends, Amyth, has taken this action step. His NGO, Elaan deals with this issue of child sexual abuse. Please hop over to his Elaan blog to show your support.