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classism among a range of other factors are imported into cyberspace by the very inherent nature of it being a human product as we look into a world ahead of us that is now richly infused with artificial intelligence with a heavy carbon footprint no less and technology that is helping us uncover the finer details of our ever expanding universe what might we draw from our early years of engagement in this space first it is important to acknowledge that technology is not the solution to all our problems it is as much an enabler of the patriarchy as it is of feminism leveraging tech to enhance the proliferation of services accessibility of education or awareness and facilitation of help seeking behaviors must be sufficiently preceded by community stake holding to give you an example building an app and leaving it on an app store without making it accessible comprehensible and empathetic is like throwing the baby with the bathwater until we address poverty and classism the proliferation of technology to the last mile is a utopian dream but we can find ways to build strong liaisons to make it accessible one of the easiest ways to do this is to work with those who work with the communities on ground for instance equipping collectives and non profits with tech based solutions and educating their beneficiaries on accessing these solutions through the collectives and non profits can transform access a village level school could be equipped with smart devices and a robust internet connection which can then work with the last mile to enable access to education or entrepreneurial training second intersectionality is vital in engaging with tech accessibility remains a major challenge for most of the world where race caste language religion nationality and migration status age ability and class play major roles in complicating gendered experiences over the past few years since the pandemic began several young people have been entirely left out of school and university because their social positionality prevented them from comfortably accessing devices to attend classes online a young dalit woman in india died by suicide because she couldn t access school we must take care not to let tech become a new arena for us to apply old tested and successful even formulae of structural violence treating tech as an opportunity to start over would help us prioritize the human and their rights rather than reiterating systemic and structural violence to re entrench barriers that we have normalized for generations the key is to enable access in every sense of the term from the devices one needs to connect to the language in which their resources are made available third building tech with empathy is fundamental to changemaking through technology we inhabit the public spaces we create the collective mindsets we bring to the public space become that of the spaces too the same is true for artificial intelligence which now seems to run the world the tech we order about to do our bidding is evidently female think of alexa cortana and siri for example we must pause to think about how we import a patriarchal mindset into the dynamics that define our approach it doesn t take very long to see the discrepancy at play here the patriarchy has brought a power dynamic into play banks that use artificial intelligence to assign creditworthiness scores to loan applicants forget a significant element in the machine learning process historically patriarchy has enabled more men to receive loans than women a fact that a machine tends to translate to mean that men are more creditworthy than women which then means that gender becomes a basis to determine creditworthiness and a basis to reject women who apply for loans automation in hiring processes has discriminated based on gender in cyberspace we may share digital ages with people who may be a whole generation older or younger than us which means that the mindsets that come along with our engagements reflect the conditioning we bring to these spaces if we reflect on bringing empathy into technology and understand ways to incorporate gender equality rather than import inequality and scramble to undo it we can go a long way in dismantling the patriarchy that is rife online finally safety should underlie every approach to making tech and innovations for gender equality while care must be taken not to perpetuate and reiterate gender stereotypes on the one hand it is especially important to acknowledge that vulnerability is heightened in tech driven spaces the violence young women face online rests on a spectrum from the apps that assert a particular ideal body image or type to those that objectify and sexualize women and girls from trolls who come at women and girls online to the ease with which women are shut down and out of social media spaces building robust reporting mechanisms resources for handling trauma from tech based engagements and creating active online bystanders is vital to enabling a seamless safe and empowering engagement with tech kirthi jayakumar is an activist peace educator artist entrepreneur and writer from chennai india date december 10 2024 author psw team tags 25 blog symposium digital feminist activism comments leave a comment 25 the silent suffering in sugarcane fields standard the silent suffering in sugarcane fields radheshyam jadhav the sun beats down relentlessly on the parched earth of beed district a cruel reminder of the drought that has plagued this region for years yet amidst the drought there s another tragedy that seldom gets the attention it deserves a tragedy that hides in plain sight in the dusty lanes of kathoda village septuagenarian indira waghmare sits with a broad smile on her face a smile that doesn t reach her eyes she points to the scars etched on her frail body recounting the times her husband struck her this is not an unusual story here in fact it s all too common mangal name changed another woman from the village shares an even more horrifying tale she was once forced to eat faeces by her own husband and in laws for the crime of disobedience such is the fate of countless women in these unforgiving drought ravaged lands of marathwada especially beed the brutal realities of their lives are unimaginable layered with a complexity of gender based violence that we as outsiders can barely begin to comprehend the harsh existence of these women sugarcane cutters mothers wives and survivors is a story that needs to be told over the course of six months from october to march nearly 10 lakh sugarcane cutters migrate from the dry barren districts of marathwada to the fertile sugar belt of western maharashtra half of them are women and together they are the backbone of maharashtra s booming sugar industry but despite their indispensable contribution their voices are muffled their struggles unseen their sacrifices unacknowledged the invisible hands that sweeten the nation s tea and desserts are themselves left broken and voiceless trapped in a cycle of oppression and exploitation the womb less women of beed a tragedy of survival imagine a world where having a womb a natural life giving organ becomes a burden a liability this is the world of the women cane cutters in beed here hysterectomies are not just a medical procedure they are a norm a chilling rite of passage by the time these women are 22 or 23 many of them have already been subjected to a hysterectomy these women have barely lived their lives yet they are forced to give up the very organ that defines so much of their identity why because for a cane cutter woman menstruation is not just a natural process it s a financial liability contractors the middlemen who orchestrate the brutal work cycles of these women insist on hiring only those who won t need time off for periods a day of missed work due to menstruation can mean a fine of 500 an unaffordable loss for families who rely on every rupee earned during the cutting season to avoid this problem hysterectomies have become the grotesque solution but don t be fooled this is not a choice these women make freely it s economic survival coercion under the guise of medical advice and exploitation that drives them to surrender their bodies medical practitioners in the region prey on their fears convincing them that symptoms like white discharge will inevitably lead to cancer better safe than sorry they say and soon enough the scalpel is at work these surgeries often unnecessary and unethical rob these women of their reproductive health and in many cases their ovaries are removed as well the result a host of physical and psychological problems hormonal imbalances weight gain mental health issues all of which they are left to bear alone with no medical follow up or care once the surgery is done the woman becomes what is expected of her a machine a womb less worker who can toil day and night without the nuisance of menstruation but beneath this supposed efficiency lies a broken human being one whose health autonomy and dignity have been sacrificed at the altar of economic survival the psychological toll reduced to living working machines these women are not just physically mutilated their psychological trauma is profound imagine being told that your womb is useless once you ve had children imagine being made to feel that your only worth lies in how much work you can do in the fields not in who you are as a person this is the message that women in beed internalize from a young age for many the hysterectomy happens before they ve even had a chance to fully understand their bodies manipulated by both contractors and medical professionals they are led to believe that life without a womb will be easier freer but the reality is far darker these women many of them still in their early twenties are thrust into a life of continuous physical strain emotional numbness and endless work their agency stripped away the psychological scars run deep they lose not just their reproductive capacity but also their sense of self they are reduced to mere laborers valued only for the cane they can cut day in and day out the burden of being womb less isn t just physical it s an emotional weight that these women carry with them every day silencing their voices and breaking their spirits sexual exploitation the unseen horror as if the economic and psychological violence weren t enough these women are also subjected to rampant sexual exploitation living in tents near the sugarcane fields with no access to proper sanitation or safety they are easy targets the lack of privacy the absence of basic amenities these conditions only exacerbate their vulnerability to sexual harassment and assault and yet this dark reality remains largely unspoken the women often from marginalized communities have no recourse no support system no legal avenues to seek justice the sexual violence they face is intertwined with the economic violence the contractors see these women not as human beings but as tools for their financial gain any resistance any attempt to assert their rights is met with further exploitation or threats of being cut off from work work that is their only means of survival a system rigged against them it s easy to blame the contractors the medical practitioners or even the drought but the reality is that these women are trapped in a system that has been rigged against them from the start patriarchal norms deeply entrenched in the social fabric of rural maharashtra devalue women s labor and bodies women cane cutters are seen as expendable their well being secondary to the economic goals of their families and communities despite their crucial role in sustaining the sugar industry these women are invisible to the system they are not recognized as workers they have no labor rights no access to healthcare no safety nets activists have tried to raise awareness but the challenges are immense the district administration largely ignorant of the ground realities has done little to address the systemic issues these women face breaking the silence the lives of sugarcane cutter women in beed district are a testament to the grim realities of gender based violence in rural india it s a violence that is not just physical but also economic psychological emotional and sexual these women are caught in a web of oppression that strips them of their health dignity and agency the plight of the womb less women of beed is a tragedy that cannot be ignored it is time to break the silence to recognize their struggles and to demand change these women deserve more than just acknowledgment they deserve justice radheshyam jadhav is a journalist based in pune he was a recipient of the 2022 prajnya r rajaram grit research fellowship date december 9 2024 author psw team tags 25 blog symposium exploitation forced hysterectomies labour sugarcane workplace sexual harassment comments leave a comment 25 activating the workplace sexual harassment law standard activating the workplace sexual harassment law akila rs the sexual harassment at workplace prevention prohibition redressal act of 2013 with the unfortunate acronym of posh is nearly 11 years old it is time to introspect into whether it has been effective or if it is to be added to the long list of progressive legislations that failed to live up to their potential the act places positive duties on the employer organisation to notify a policy constitute an internal complaints committee and take steps to sensitise its staff and members of the icc the act applies to informal and formal sectors alike the law has given rise to a compliance service industry which looks at employer s duties under the law as a series of check boxes to be ticked off it is not uncommon to find sensitisation awareness programmes being delivered through standardised online modules often created in and for a foreign jurisdiction with little reference to indian law or our social context in the interest of efficiency and cost effectiveness employers often wear their history of zero complaints of sexual harassment at their workplace as a badge of honour whilst it is theoretically possible for workplaces to be entirely safe and free from sexual harassment more often than not this track record is due to a trust deficit at the workplace and that employees do not feel confident to speak up or report violations the key feature of the act which is both its strength and weakness is that the redressal mechanism is internal the aggrieved woman can avail remedies at the workplace without approaching the police or courts which are institutions that can be inaccessible intimidating and expensive to most laypersons however where the process is entirely internal chances are that the organisational biases and priorities could come into play there could be a justifiable apprehension that complaints would not be taken seriously in the interest of shielding certain respondents especially those in managerial or senior positions the main safeguard aga...
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