Title - Railway ‘Naari Bheri’ voices need to protect women

Women affiliated to the South Central Railway Employees Sangh conducted ‘Naari Bheri’ programme on Tuesday at Rail Nilayam in the city, with M Raghvaiah, general secretary of the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen’, Manjulika Asthana (wife of GN Asthana, general manager of SCR) and other office bearers and leaders attending it. More than 500 women employees working at the headquarters of various divisions attended the programme.

Manjulika Asthana, president of the Women Employees Association, said that in the present scenario many women in India were feeling insecure, as they felt that they had no protection against atrocities on women. Male violence against women was a worldwide phenomenon. Although not every woman had experienced it, fear of violence was an important factor in the lives of most women.

Fear of violence was a cause of women's lack of participation in activities beyond the home, as well as inside it. Within the home, women and girls might be subjected to physical and sexual abuse as punishment or as culturally justified assaults. These acts shaped their attitudes to life and their expectations of themselves.

M Umanagendramani, assistant general secretary of the sangh, said that there were various forms of crimes against women. Sometimes, it began even before their birth, sometimes in the adulthood and at other phrases of life. Women in India constituted nearly about half of the population and most of them were grinding under the socio-cultural and religious structures. “One gender has been controlling the space of the India's social economic, political and religious fabric since time immemorial,” she said.

It was common to read news about violations or wrongs committed on women every day. Orthodox society was much prejudiced by age-old habits and customs. A violated woman, whether she was forced or helpless, had no place in society. Another danger in India was that Indian law did not differentiate between major and minor rape. In every ten rape cases, six were of minor girls. Every seven minutes a crime was committed against women in India. Every 26 minutes a woman was molested. Every 34 minutes a rape took place.