BENGALURU: Marking International Women’s Day, Jayanagar MLA Sowmya Reddy inaugurated Bio Toilets for BBMP women pourakarmika in Jayanagar, in collaboration with CGI and Durga India, on Wednesday.
Priya Varadarajan, the founder of Durga India told TOI that the women had expressed their need for safe toilets to the Durga team during their regular sessions.
"Durga is a citizen sector organisation that works to bring gender justice in public spaces. We have been working for the last 10 years across different parts of Bangalore, but particularly in South Bangalore. The e-toilets will be placed in the Basavangudi Police Station and a few wards at Jayanagar. This is being done in collaboration with BBMP, Corporators and the MLA," Varadarajan said.
Durga also held a Women's Day Seminar on "#BreakTheBias on Sexual Harassment" in St Joseph's College of Commerce, Bengaluru. A team from the organisation Interacted with 100 students from across departments of the college and addressed biases around gender, imbalance of power and its dynamics, and deterrence of sexual harassment. They had also held a similar seminar on March 3 at KLE Society's Law College in the city.
Varadarajan said that the seminars and events were aimed to break the cycle of intergenerational biases and patriarchy while addressing sexual harassment in public spaces,” Varadarajan said.
Active bystanders and DAREs
Durga is also collaborating with the Bangalore Traffic Police department with the objective of creating safe spaces and active bystanders who intervene when a woman is in distress.
“Through this collaboration, we shall train and empower traffic police and traffic wardens to become active bystanders or DAREs - Durga’s Are Real-heroes Everywhere - who can deter sexual harassment. We will also interact with street vendors at the cluster level to train them to become active bystanders,” Varadarajan explained.
“A DARE is an everyday citizen like a flower seller, a chai wala, a Kirana store employee, an ATM security guard, a bus driver, and so on. These people 'own' the space with their prolonged presence, they know the surroundings well and therefore can be first respondents to an act of violence in the vicinity,” she explained.
