How safe and secure are today’s women

Chennai: Even as the world is getting ready to celebrate Women’s Day, the question that continues even in 2021- Are they really safe and independent?

According to a latest study, most participants, particularly women, identified violence as a broad term, consisting of physical, mental, verbal, and sexual abuse.

The study by Breakthrough India also highlighted how patriarchal practices were culturally embedded in society and its correlation between deteriorating mental health and everyday misogyny and patriarchy.

The study also reveals that building safer public spaces for women requires work at several structural and systemic levels. An important aspect among them is bystander support. The lack of positive action from bystanders is not just because they do not care. The fear of being blamed for the violence, of getting stuck in police and legal processes are some challenges that stop people. Not knowing what to do in such situations is another hurdle that bystanders often face.

Meanwhile, another study was conducted to understand the investing habits of Indian women in the run-up to International Women’s Day.

The survey was sent to more than 2.5 lakh women and fetched more than 28,000 responses over three days.

Of the total respondents, 4.3 per cent were from Tamilnadu and about 2.53 per cent of the total responses were received from Chennai alone.

The encouraging insight from the survey by Groww is that among the women who are investing, a majority of them take their own decisions. Even though many of them discuss their financial choices with their families or partners, the final decisions are their own.

The survey reveals that while women investors from Tamilnadu are tilting towards equity related investments like stocks and mutual funds.

While the nation has made meaningful progress in improving gender equality, we still seem to have a long way to go, particularly in the case of matrimony and its orthodox methods.

A study by Shaadi.com with women from across India revealed that 83 per cent of them face a lot of pressure from society when it comes to her marriage. Pressure that is born, not out of her needs or wants, but rather on what society expects out of her. She is judged and questioned at every step in this journey.

The findings revealed that, 75 per cent women continued to be rushed towards getting married after a certain age.

Studies apart, many organisations and companies have rolled out interesting packages ahead of Women’s Day.

Tikotra, a home healthcare service provider based in Chennai, has launched exclusive healthcare services for women.

The bouquet of services include consultations on fertility, birth control and menstrual health for young women, pain management consultations and therapies for menopausal and middle-aged women.

Tikotra’s mental health wing also caters to the healing of emotional stress faced by young women, and the mitigation of mental health disorders faced by elderly women. Those interested can register on tikotra.com/women.

Public App aims to underline stories of womanhood from every sphere through its campaign #PublicSalutesWomen. The idea is to pull out stories from the deepest pockets of the country, and recognise their dreams, ambitions, struggles and wins.

The app invites people to send in videos of women and share their journeys or experiences from any stage of life. Powerful stories will be acknowledged and brought into the limelight in front of the entire community.

This Women’s Day, Platinum Evara pays an ode to women leaders who embody these values, who lead people in the right direction through tough times. Named #SheLeadsWithHeart the platform brings the conversation on key ingredients of leadership today to the fore!

To emphasise the importance of leading with an empathetic and compassionate heart, Platinum Evara will be undertaking an extensive digital campaign comprising a plethora of initiatives to bring the message of #SheLeadsWithHeart to life and honor women leaders across different fields.

Orient celebrates Women’s Day with the launch of a new line of kitchen appliances.
Salil Kappoor, business head, home appliances, Orient Electric Limited said, “Covid period has witnessed a dramatic change in lifestyles, we found more and more menfolk joining hands with their better halves partnering in cooking and attending tohouse chores. We further dwelled into these trends whereby they want more convenience, hands-free and faster processing, stylish and sturdy products which can save them time and help them to multitask. We sensed the need for these gender-neutraland user-centric features and felt it apt to gift this launch honouring the women in our lives on International Women’s Day.”