Tag: #covid19 #covidupdate #womenempowerment #singlemother #story #fiction #loop #grief #despair #dreams #literature

Recommendations for Gender Based violence

Source: UN Women

Sex Education, Community, media, intervention, gender norms programmes helpful to tackle GBV. Several LGBTQ+ organizations and their programmes initiated in the USA (New York, Washington, California) we’ll discuss below all their activities.

  • Community intervention can address gender norms and attitudes. For example, the combination of microfinance schemes for women. IMAGE microfinance and gender equity initiated in South Africa and stepping stone programmes in Africa and Asia. Well trained facilitators and community ownership appear to boost the effectiveness of the programme.
  • Public awareness campaigns via television, radio, newspapers and other mass media can be effective in altering attitudes towards gender norms.
  • School based programmes consider considerable components to spread words regarding gender norms and attitudes before they become deeply ingrained in children & youth. Positive results have been reported in the US and Canada by Youth Relationship Project.

In Rawada, UNFPA introduced  “one stop centers” to fulfill the diverse physical, emotional and school needs of survivors.

  • Psycho – counseling, helplines and safe houses programmes on sexual reproduction health that should be treated as first place service.

Research – Build Gender sensitivity in male groups  

Men as partners programme from age 10 – 14 years, only all male groups must participate in changing attitude or mindset. Encourage boys to stop domestic and sexual violence towards gender and to become responsible but programme has yet to be in evaluation process.

Youth Relationship Project in Ontario is a community based intervention to help at-risk 14 – 16 year old boys; take a health promotion approach that develops healthy, no abusive relationships by providing education about gender related issues, conflict resolution, communication skills and social action activities. Randomized controlled trials showed that intervention was effective in reducing incidents of physical and emotional abuse.

Another programme in United States, Mentors in violence prevention, provide two hours educational sessions to male and female high school and college student in mixed or single sex groups. Here, students learn about different types of abuse, gender stereotypes and society’s acceptance of violence against women. Evaluation of the programme examined the knowledge and attitudes of participants  after two to five months of implementation. This study indicated that the programme improved participants’ attitudes towards violence against GBV.  

Organizations like GLSEN, Lambda legal, Advocates for youth, Gender spectrum, Centrelink,The Trevor Project are working exclusively for gender sensitivity and inclusive environment, suicide prevention services to young LGBTQ people under 25. Some of the main projects/steps of organizations are:- 

  • Through litigation, education and Policy advocacy protect the rights of LGBTQ people that seek health care and medical professional health and facilities understand their responsibility to treat LGBT patients fairly.

Sports projects as education & advocacy programme.

  • Solidarity week, No name calling week and day of silence are part of the project
  • Supportive educators, comprehensive policies and inclusive curriculum.
  • Train organize and support student survivor activists in challenging their educational institutions to address violence and discrimination.
  • Advocate for Policy change at the campus, state and federal levels to ensure meaningful systematic action to end gender violence.
  • Communities engagement including young people of color, black and Latino and trans color youth; members use social media campaigns, peer education, storytelling and media outreach to raise awareness of interconnection between HIV disparity, racism, homophobia and transphobia determinate for inclusion of youth most impacted by HIV in planning, implementation and evaluation of programs; policies that affect their health and well being.

Women Empowerment

Women empowerment refers to making women powerful to make them capable of deciding for themselves. Women have suffered a lot through the years at the hands of men. In earlier centuries, they were treated as almost non-existent. As if all the rights belonged to men even something as basic as voting. As the times evolved, women realized their power. There on began the revolution for women empowerment.

Photo by William Fortunato on Pexels.com

As women were not allowed to make decisions for them, women empowerment came in like a breath of fresh air. It made them aware of their rights and how they must make their own place in society rather than depending on a man. It recognized the fact that things cannot simply work in someone’s favor because of their gender. However, we still have a long way to go when we talk about the reasons why we need it.

Need for Women Empowerment

Almost every country, no matter how progressive has a history of ill-treating women. In other words, women from all over the world have been rebellious to reach the status they have today. While the western countries are still making progress, third world countries like India still lack behind in Women Empowerment.

In India, women empowerment is needed more than ever. India is amongst the countries which are not safe for women. There are various reasons for this. Firstly, women in India are in danger of honor killings. Their family thinks its right to take their lives if they bring shame to the reputation of their legacy.

Moreover, the education and freedom scenario is very regressive here. Women are not allowed to pursue higher education, they are married off early. The men are still dominating women in some regions like it’s the woman’s duty to work for him endlessly. They do not let them go out or have freedom of any kind.In addition, domestic violence is a major problem in India. The men beat up their wife and abuse them as they think women are their property. More so, because women are afraid to speak up.

Similarly, the women who do actually work get paid less than their male counterparts. It is downright unfair and sexist to pay someone less for the same work because of their gender. Thus, we see how women empowerment is the need of the hour. We need to empower these women to speak up for themselves and never be a victim of injustice.How to Empower Women?There are various ways in how one can empower women. The individuals and government must both come together to make it happen.

Education for girls must be made compulsory so that women can become illiterate to make a life for themselves.Women must be given equal opportunities in every field, irrespective of gender. Moreover, they must also be given equal pay. We can empower women by abolishing child marriage. Various programs must be held where they can be taught skills to fend for themselves in case they face financial crisis.Most importantly, the shame of divorce and abuse must be thrown out of the window. Many women stay in abusive relationships because of the fear of society. Parents must teach their daughters it is okay to come home divorced rather than in a coffin.

Education in the present

Education is very important in every individual’s life as it is very important for the living. The person who is educated will be well treated by the society and will you have good potential wherever he or she goes. Education as the extra energy to the individual’s life and a moles the individuals character into a good one. It is very important to be educated as the competition in the world is comparatively very high.

Online classes are the greatest and the biggest task to all the students. It is so difficult for all the students to understand the topics in a detailed manner. Even though the students try their level best to understand the topics during the online class, it is only the 50% of learning but the topics are not understood properly but the students and face lots of difficulties.

It is also equal difficult to conduct exams to all mine because it’s exams are connected through online then there is a chance formal practices. Basically, students commit malpractices during exams in a view to get good marks but not about the knowledge. So,many of the students commit malpractices.

Ways to improve the education system

* skill – based learning :

As of now , the education system is such that everyone is forced to study science and math. If this system can be revamped to identify the strengths of a student, then they can be given appropriate training in the chosen field. This will ensure that the child shines in that particular field.

* Rural Education :

As the sad thing about the Indian education system is the fact that its focus is only on urban clusters. There are hardly any decent centres of learning in the rural areas. This is especially true in terms of higher education. If a country has to actually develop, urban and rural development have to go hand in hand.

* Gender Neutral Education :

The education system has always favoured men over the fairer sex. The major change that must be brought about is to involve women in the same. Particularly subjects that are now considered to be the strength of men alone ( like carpentry, engineering, etc). Should be made more accessible to women. Pioneer women in these fileds should be given due encouragement and appreciation.

* Teacher Training :

India has a very good quality of dedicated teachers. However, the sad fact here is the fact that after they join this service, they receive little or no training. In such a situation, giving them periodic training will not just ensure that they are updated with the changing times, but will also improve the entire education scene of the country by leaps and bounds.

* Infrastructure :

As in every other sector, the indian education sector is one that suffers from the acute death of infrastructure. Most of the government schools do not even have proper chairs, tables, restrooms, let alone a playground, libraries and laboratories. Thus ,the first step in revamping the education scene in the country should begin with improving the infrastructure so that the students are given an evironment where they can learn to the best of their abilities.

* subsidising professional courses :

It is a sad reality that many meritorious students are not able to afford professional corses because of the sheer expense involved in the same. This is all the way truer in case of students from the general category who do not have access to many scholarships. In such a situation subsidising the cost professional education will ensure that the same is within the reach of deserving students from the lower and lower middle class strata of the Indian society.

* Basic computing In Rural Areas :

On one hand , India is a land of IT giants; on the other, rural India is completely digitally ill- equipped, in a sitiation like this, the first change that the education system must bring forward is to start free computing classes for skill development in rural areas. Only then will rural Indian move in the same pace as that of the urban Digital India and the country embark on the journey of development.

* Make sports compulsory :

One of the main reasons for the alarming rise in suicide amongst students in the country is the fact that they cannot handle stress. That in turn is because they are subjected to too much mental pressure. By making sports compusory it can be ensured that all the students indulge in some sort of some physical activity. This will lead to their mind performance better and enable them to grasp their theory lessons well.

* Educate parents :

Most of the times it is seen that the children’s woes centre atound that of their parents. In the Indian scenerio, parents are the ones who force their wards into a career they do not like. As a result students do not excel and upon failing to meet their parents expectations, they suffer from a number of mental health issues. To prevent such a thing from happening, the first step that must be taken is to educate the parents about the different carrer options that are available to the students and the possible scope of future in them.

* Remove The Reservation system :

The reservation system in India has been so obsessed with providing the best of opportunities to the reserved that it misses out on many opportunities for the ones who actually deserve the same. This results in not just personal loss for certain people but also brain drain for the entire country and fosters a massive loss to the nation’s economy.

Today’s education system may be good to score marks, but fails to retain the knowledge once students have completed their examinations. This leads to young minds being stifled at an age when they should be asking questions, learning and gaining knowledge, and developing a thirst for more knowledge.

Story – A loop of Grief

This story not only epitomizes love, friendship, and resilience but also about loss, grief, and despair. This global pandemic has caught us in an infinite loop; the number of endless cases adding up each day and with it the increasing number of deaths.

A week ago, my best friend and also a Neurosurgeon, Ram Tripathi was infected by Covid-19
and was admitted to the same hospital. The day when he was admitted, his oxygen levels were
plummeting. And as the days passed, his health worsened and we had to put him on the ventilator. Every day, I personally went to his bed for checkups. For those 2 mins, he would ask about no one but his wife and his baby girl. I can still remember the last words he said to me the day before he died – “Promise me you’ll take care of my wife and Naira (his 5-months old daughter). Meera always wanted to be a baker but… I’ll have to leave her this journey halfway” At that moment all I could do was just hold his hands and assure him that he’ll be fine.

The next day, I was asked to hurry to the hospital, there was an emergency; It was Ram taking his last breaths. We all tried our best to save him but we couldn’t. I couldn’t process all of this and was asked to call his wife and inform her about his death. Somehow, I gathered the courage to dial her number but stood quiet. She was getting anxious with every passing second and lined up questions if Ram’s doing okay and why am I not speaking up. After a min, I said her that we lost him. She screamed and wept; I could hear the baby girl crying in the background too, only if she knew that her dad won’t be back home ever again. Today, lying on
the death bed, all that’s running in my mind is the promises I made to Ram. Also how after I die, my mother would be called and informed that she lost her son to Covid-19 too, how she won’t be able to believe that all her prayers were left unanswered.
But fortunately, I lived and I feel the only reason I’m alive is that I’d to keep the promise, the one that I made to Ram. Till the day I recovered, it was time to scatter Ram’s ashes. In my absence, Meera and Naira stayed at my place with my parents. Meera had already gone into deep despair. I could see her eyes all red as if she cried herself to sleep every night and shed blood tears. She often called me Bhaiya and I took it as my responsibility to make my younger sister achieve all her dreams and also keep my promise to Ram.
Years went and she was among the best bakers in our city yet I haven’t seen her smile in all these years. As if with Ram, her smile went along. Naira was her only ray of hope and only
motivation. She wanted her to live a better life and did every possible thing that Ram would have dreamt for her daughter.


Just like millions of people lost their loved ones to this Covid-19, Meera( Ram’s wife) lost her husband, and Naira (his 5-months old daughter) lost her dad even before she could talk to him. Yet Meera didn’t lose hope and stood strong to take care of her child all by herself. She started her own bakery shop with the help of funds arranged by Mayank initially. Later, she lived her life on her own terms and would never let her daughter’s wish unfulfilled.


Like Meera, when one feels stuck in a loop of grief or despair, just remember,

“हर कठिन समय के बाद

एक खूबसूरत सुबह जरूर होती है।

समय की विशेता यही है

की यह बदलता जरूर है।”