It’s become easy to identify problems plaguing our country. Every day, headlines splashed across newspapers and relentless TV coverage tell us exactly what’s wrong. The Catalyst Conference, held by the Ananta Centre (formerly part of the Aspen Institute India) and EmancipAction, was an attempt to take that awareness a few steps further. It brought together 200 leading names from government, private and non-profit sectors to discuss and tackle what has rapidly become a pandemic across the country — sexual violence against women and children.
Chaired by Naina Lal Kidwai, Country Head – India and Director, HSBC Asia-Pacific, the conference included five panels exploring key driving forces behind the violence, as well as several breakout sessions to facilitate brainstorming and interaction among people with similar interest areas.
Titled “Economic Empowerment: Is a Job Enough?”, the discussion moderated by Mallika Kapur, CNN’s Mumbai-based international correspondent, opened the conference on an involved and intense note. The panel was well represented, with voices from each sector; Mirai Chatterjee, Director of Social Security, SEWA, Anisa Draboo, Landesa’s National Communication & Advocacy Manager, Aparna Mathur, Resident Scholar, AEI and Kidwai herself. The conversation explored the relationship between financial independence and experiences of sexual violence, and Kapur opened with both questions and statements, identifying poverty as a root cause of sexual abuse and violence, while drawing a distinction between monetary and land security.
The initial discussion concentrated on fleshing out the idea of job security, with Mathur citing the lack of reliable and well researched data available in India, and the further confusion the findings of the available data causes. “All the findings report that women who work face higher levels of violence,” she said, adding that this feeds into the type of mindset that blames the woman for exposing herself to danger and violence. Further on in the discussion, the panellists underlined the importance of income stratification, questioning if how much a woman earns affects her exposure to violence.
The scope of financial security was also expanded to incorporate land and property ownership. “Owning land and property can change not just how you view yourself but also how your family and community sees you,” said Draboo.
Kidwai furthered the discussion by offering an insight into the private sector’s role. “70 per cent of private sector companies in India are family run businesses, and many of them have not adopted best practices, still needing to create gender sensitivity in employees.”
Offering solutions, Kidwai turned the discussion towards the need to build a hygienic environment for women, put crèches in place and introduce gender sensitivity in workplaces.
Chatterjee, whose work with the labour sector and women has been extensive, offered her views too, bringing into the foray women from villages, towns and cities who rely on the solidarity of their sisterhood to fight both violence and discrimination.
The detailed exploration of the problems gave way to a need for solutions, and first and foremost, the need to introduce healthy gender practices at a very early stage of a child’s life was underlined.
The panel listed ideas like constructive creativity, out-of-box solutions and changes in financial thinking as possible ways of combating violence against women and bringing about economic empowerment.
A job, of course, was not deemed enough, but only the first step down a long road.
