ScreenIndia.com :: Biff’em Back

ScreenIndia.com

Posted: May 15, 2005 at 0000 hrs IST

What do you do when incidents of crime against women keep on spiralling and authorities fail to contain this menance? Take up self-defence courses so that you can keep the wolves at bay. Assisting women in this regard, are a few committed corporates.

According to the latest official figures, the number of cases of sexual harassment reported in Haryana jumped by more than three times between 2001 and 2003, up from 401 to 1,302. In Uttar Pradesh, 4,970 such cases were registered in 2003, nearly twice as many recorded in 2001 (2,575). However, there was a sharp decline in the number of rape cases in the state, according to the figures tabled in Parliament recently.

As more and more women enter the workforce, sexual harassment has seen a rise in workplaces and issues of safety confront women every time they step out of their homes.

Says Electrolux India CEO and managing director, Rajeev Karwal, who has spearheaded the company’s self-defence programmes for women, “The constant fear that women undergo to realise their dreams prompted us to initiate martial arts courses for women in Delhi and elsewhere.”

Electrolux has conducted several courses in karate across the National Capital Region in the last couple of years, training more than 300 women in karate. Its Femme Force initiative, as it is called, has tied up with other like-minded organisations like Confederation of Indian Industry and Ficci Ladies Organisation to train women free of cost in martial arts along with a workshop on mental preparedness conducted by a trained psychologist.

“I got a chance to use the training while returning from office one evening and I made complete use of the training. The man, an army captain, will never do anything like that again in his whole life, and I’m more confident now,” says Ekta, a Femme Force activist who undertook the course at Vasant Valley School, New Delhi.

Electrolux, which invests Rs 1 crore annually in this project, now hopes to take this programme to other cities. Next on the list are Jaipur, Chennai, Lucknow, Indore, Mumbai and Bhubaneswar, where it is hoping to tie up with schools and private organisations. “We are also in talks with ITC to conduct a similar programme for their employees,” says Karwal.

Several corporates have evinced in such programmes, with a few starting in-house programmes for their employees.

IT services company Accenture recently launched a programme to sensitise employees about gender differences. As part of its More Learning@Accenture programme, the company is initiating roadshows to educate employees on its policies on gender discrimination and harassment, setting up employee-led clubs to organise sports initiatives such as self-defence skills, says Rekha Menon, head, India Geographic Services, Accenture.

Another Femme Force veteran, Asmita, says, “I haven’t had an opportunity to use the training, but you feel a strange sense of security now when moving out alone, staying at home alone or taking an evening walk in a seemingly isolated park.”

According to Harsh Soin, vice-president, People Excellence, Bharti Tele-Ventures,

“In a service industry and especially in a sector like telecom, people are the main asset. It is only through its people that Bharti can achieve its vision. As such Bharti spends a significant proportion of its resources in training employees. Training programmes include skill enhancement and general management programmes, offsites and outdoors. The self-defence training programme, Krav Maga, is one such exercise. The programme imparts the basic skills to withstand temporary aggression and at the same time brings about a work-life balance in the employees’ schedule.

The programme also brings about an element of physical exercise to it.”

Says Vicky Kapoor, an instructor in Krav Maga, a self-defence programme developed by the Israeli army, “This course incorporating Israeli combat tactics, can help make women more self-confident when travelling at late hours. The course helps one defend oneself with whatever object is handy, be it a pen, a mobile phone, or an umbrella, or even with bare hands.” Kapor has trained employees from Oberoi Hotels and the Bharti Group in this art.

“We have conducted this course free of cost for 200 girls at Nari Niketan, a shelter for women in Delhi. We are also trying to tie up with a couple of companies to offer this courses as part of their human resource initiatives.”

Oberoi Hotels and Resorts conducted a course on self-defence for some of its women employees last year. Around four batches consisting of 20 women each have been trained in Krav Maga by Mr Kapor, says the company’s director (human resources) Nidhi Chauhan.

The Delhi Police’s Crime Against Women Cell has been giving self-defence training in colleges but now it has started training working women also. Delhi Police has tied up with All India Women’s Conference for a permanent programme to train residents of its working women’s hostel in the capital. The women, either in their 20s or 30s, have learnt the basics of judo, karate and taekwondo.

“We would like five to six batches to run concurrently. This requires more resources and we would encourage other corporates to join hands with us so that more women, whether they are employees, students or housewives, are able to handle such unpleasant situations,” says Karwal. According to him, a corporate house can succeed in such ventures only if it has a strong social commitment, instead of just pursuing it for corporate mileage.

Source: http://www.screenindia.com/news/biffem-back/135268/ (http://www NULL.screenindia NULL.com/news/biffem-back/135268/)

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