to talk about women’s safety but I would
like to give you a disclaimer before I
start this is no male bashing at verga
we laugh our men personally I can’t
think of a world without George Clooney
Rohini is an 18 year old girl she’s a
happy
chirpy fun-loving girl she joins College
suddenly things changed for Amy
she accomplished she becomes withdrawn
restrained unhappy looking stops talking
to people stopped eating and definitely
stops wanting to go to college her
parents and friends noticed this in her
they are wondering what could have been
the problem with Rohini
rohini has a professor in college who’s
staring at her staring at parts of her
no attempt of touch
no comments have been made so Doheny is
not sure but she feels extremely
violated consumed it’s like somebody is
eating her inch-by-inch she raises this
with her friends but friends casually
brush it saying really neat come on it’s
nice if your teacher likes you you’re
gonna get better scores in that subject
that’s not what Rohini won her parents
asked her repeatedly
her parents even tell her that we’d
spent a lot of resource money energy and
putting you in one of the best colleges
in the city Rohini you need to get
higher scores throw a knee going into
college with not high scores it was
going into a world of darkness blank
space into this world of shoonya how
many of us here have experienced
how many of us have had near and dear
ones who’ve experienced unsolicited – so
you see this problem is not around women
alone it’s not just our problem it
belongs to everyone who’s with us and
everyone who’s part of this with us when
we talk about the issue of sexual
harassment we often fear of alarming
statistic I’m not here to talk about the
statistics I’m not here to tell you how
many women get raped in India in every
hour but how many children are missing
in India I’m here to tell you what I
figured out as how not to be a part of
that statistic what is it that I can do
so that I don’t become a statistic so
that people around me do not become
statistic the choices with me I think if
I am aware of where I am and what I want
to do a large part of mine now my moment
here is with me and I can be in charge
of that as well now in Romania scares
it’s a feeling she feels by a Lynton can
she really go to a cop and say you know
what I feel someone is violating me do
you think she’s really going to get help
no but where she can get help is her
inner strength
it’s her sense of wanting to do
something then I’m there we’ve all been
a part of what happens in Delhi in
December 2012 and their fire case yes
and we also came to a point in
then that the entire countries without
seeing one question the concern became
comment the commotion was common there
was a lot of communication which was
what am I going to do about my safety as
a woman or what am i as a man going to
do about the safety of the women I loved
and that was a common thread across so
we also had this question and on
reflection we feel that in India we are
not taught enough about how to desert
sexual harassment in any of our
curriculum so we some of us felt yes
protests were important was asking for
advocacy was equally important but there
was something that we could do with
ourselves as well maybe we could give
ourselves basic I call it life skill to
be able to understand behavior around me
to be able to gauge the appropriateness
of this behavior around me and to be
able to guard myself to the best of my
ability and that gave birth to Tonga so
we came together with the idea that
let’s create some people who will start
wanting to look after themselves by
themselves now there is no right way of
looking after myself or the wrong way
for that matter there is my will my best
way but the best I can give to myself
today in this moment in this scenario
with this perpetrator at this time of
the day and that’s it I move on I come
like the flash mob I start I feel
there’s an appropriateness around me I
respond to it and then I’m Norman
I’m just anybody else pointers I’m aware
and that’s the awareness we wanted to
build so we created Durga and we said
let’s create girls who start thinking
about themselves start thinking about
their most
moment and be aware in where they are at
this point our donor became more
powerful she said but I can look after
myself so well but I can also look after
someone next to me equally well I’m a
bystander and I have an extremely
important role to play the bystander
bystanders talking about them their most
critical and anything of crisis we can
actually be bystanders and change the
dynamics of crime altogether by being
active by being able to stand up and say
that you know what this potential victim
will not be a victim if I have a say if
I intervene I cannot help thinking
enough about what happened in November
command Chennai at the railway station
if there were bystanders that day who
had acted maybe just maybe we would have
had Swati in our midst today but being a
bystander can also backfire many times
you may get into situations where you
needn’t have been a bystander at all but
that’s alright I feel happy I just
played the role of a Good Samaritan I
can quote an example where I was at was
then third rally in Hyderabad and I was
at each street so I was just going to
bite into my pail and I had a friend for
company we were talking to each other
and I was just about to eat that delight
when I saw a girl sitting at a bench at
a distance maybe a few meters away
crying she was weeping and she had two
boys on either side looking at her
gesturing aggressive
very upset which was further upsetting
his gun and I wanted to be honored ah
I wanted to be a good Samaritan so I
said Let Me In to me I wanted to find
out if the girls was fine because I
wanted to my friend told me no just
leave them but I couldn’t see this girl
weeping at a distance and just bite into
my meal so I said no let me walk up to
her so I went up to her and I asked her
do you have a problem before she could
look up to me and say she did that came
the reply from one of the boys yes
please help us she’s been dating both of
us at the same time he can you help so I
said no I can’t help this is something
for you too results but very happily I
came back to my real and bit into it my
conscience was clear in my appetite
better so the point here is as rolled us
by standard our rules are extremely
important and we also believe very
firmly in Berga the taking control and
addressing a situation now is best it is
easiest least combative and most
effective because we are not about
bashing people in Buddha we’re about
taking control ourselves to give you an
example say I am in a bath and I see a
person staring at me neck and below
because he’s not interested and is part
of my body for some reason and I feel
it’s really inappropriate we all
experience them but what am I going to
do I know I’m getting off the bus in ten
minutes and I don’t want a tension
because I’m worried if I ask the
perpetrator what are you looking at not
one pair but I have 20 pairs looking at
the same part of me so I didn’t want
that but I still wanted to do something
I didn’t know what I said the best I can
do is look down and if it’s unbearable
move out of the bus so what have I done
I have empowered a perpetrator
now the empowered perpetrator at the
next instance realize that stairs don’t
get anything so the next instance is
great getting closer to a person this
just escalates closer and closer
there’s touch the shoving of body parts
we all know what girls go through in
buses today so what happens is none of
us have been able to do anything at that
moment because we don’t have the
confidence so we don’t know what to do
at that point so what have we done one
fine morning we wake up open the
newspaper with a cup of tea and then
what do we see a poor child all of five
who is sleeping next to her mother and a
construction site the mother woke up and
didn’t find the child because she found
a raped murdered body ten feet away from
where she left her child and you and I
have been responsible for this so what
we really need to do is take control now
because now at the moment we really need
to work so working with durga we started
creating the earth who started looking
after themselves having an active role
at the bystander as well at going and
creating more of her because if we look
at the statistics of our country and say
that okay over a 500 million girls in
our country in each of us have the
capacity to create a doula or be that
Durga imagine the power imagine what
happens it’s very much what we see here
each one of us has this power the extra
pairs of
around us supporting us so there’s
nobody we can look it up in
appropriately even think about looking
at our friend appropriately and that was
something that we felt again going back
to stats we have over 500 million men as
well are they all staring at me are they
all interested in raping no it’s a very
minuscule percentage of people so what
we gathered at that stage was the rest
of us having this battle with us you are
all with us in this and we are together
in this so each of us is that fire in
ourselves to be able to look after
ourselves someone next to us and be able
to replicate ourselves very consciously
however I would also like to bring him
to light whether there is a good guy no
I run your God but I still want to say
that whether there is a good guy whether
there is a workshop whether there is a
go to you still have that spark within
you we still as individuals wherever we
are will be able to be in control of our
safety ourselves today we are an
organization or 3500 women and girls who
are their Guardi we’ve been doing what
we’ve been doing for about three and a
half years and we’ve had excellent
results in terms of working with women
getting them in our fallen most most
importantly getting a lot of boys and
men whatever that we are committed to
the cause of women safety and we shall
continue all the way long during the
course of our work in Dorner we realized
that women and birds repeatedly told us
that he felt very violated and
vulnerable in confined public spaces of
public transport essentially and I did
give you my examples where that gives
I couldn’t possibly jump out of a moving
bus because someone was staring at me I
still needed to go from point A to point
B but this was something that was always
eating
people-people needed to go to places but
people felt very violated and this is
subtle forms of sexual harassment that
you and I do not discuss and don’t talk
enough about so what we felt we needed
to do was get something going so women
actually start believing in themselves
and feeling comfortable in any space
they go however even getting this idea
across was very difficult in fact we had
a lot of resistance from transport
provider singer boxes are most safe and
if at all they aren’t safe
we have our own solutions that’s like
tell me about it madam we’re gonna have
all the ladies in one side of the bus
and all the men on the other side of the
bus and have this little screen in
between only of the men look at the
women will there be any arrest meant so
they’re not together
they don’t have harassment thank you so
what we felt going back to our George
Clooney philosophy was real and men we
want them around we want equitable
spaces with them we want to be treated
equally we want to respect men as much
as we expect respect from men so that
was what gave birth to our little idea
we said that if there is an intervention
that is needed in public transport which
require the whole lot of people to
benefit then technology is the way to go
but it needed to be a very simple
technology intervention that was
available in the space rather than
available on the person so that gave
birth to the idea of placing what we
call a panic alarm that we call Durga
alarm which is basically a little device
that is kept in Bangalore buses today
where women can raise their hands if not
their voice against harassment and then
going back to our Durga
active bystanders in the bath the core
passengers come to the health of that
person and defuse the situation very
quickly however we are in a city in
Bangalore where multiple decades but
each step he is busy inventing the next
Google Maps no one wanted to help us
with a little technology the best
companies gave way which was when we
came back to colleges we said that as
youngsters and colleges were actually
doing a lot of innovative stuff so with
the help of the support of a bunch of
boys remember Rami our College in
Bangalore
we created this prototype of the panic
alarm which very successfully went
across my list and was needed most was
accepted as well this got refined by a
bunch of students in the Indian
Institute of Science and with support
from students like you from any number
of bangalore colleges to name a few
diamond sagas Bessette Christ University
Emily
Amyas now we are at vit we have any
number of students who have campaigned
for us gone on media on all forms of
media supported our asking for it and
today we are very proud to say that as
we speak we have this alarm in a refined
version on most batteries and we are
going to be having it in 500 buses sold
so we’ve got approval for all buses but
we will soon start step by step with 500
buses in Bangalore
the time I come back to is Allah or no
Allah the alarm is within you
we need to find out if that behavior is
inappropriate to even be able to press
the alarm so that’s the awareness that
we come back to which is core to Durga
you have control over your safety
throughout our journey we’ve been
working with a lot of students and I
already given examples but our journey
with students have not concluded yet we
have set up yoga chapters and a few
colleges where a lot of curation of
ideas a lot of planning a lot of product
development all under the Strand of
women’s safety it’s coming up with girls
and boys creating equitable spaces
within colleges to take the model the
Krotz to multiple places our pilot has
gone off very successfully with Island
saga and we would like to bring it to
your college and multiple other city
colleges over the next year as well the
point I am making again is if we have
such spaces
arohi need from the beginning will not
be lost and wanting for help she knows
where to go to but again whether there
is a workshop whether there is an alarm
whether there is an ecosystem where we
want to build we are there guards in our
own right and we should be able to take
control of our safety in our own style
and that’s our only vision [Applause]