Evescape

Loving the Unconfined Canine EVESCAPE NEWS FEATURES/GOA Cruelty against animals, though widely prevalent, is a neglected issue in Goa -- thanks to the insensitivity of the government towards animals. Cruelty to animals is an offence – under Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, and Section 429 of the Indian Penal Code – punishable with imprisonment and fine. There are also increasing incidents of intimidation faced by those who choose to take care of unconfined animals, even as such action is considered an offence under the Indian Penal Code (specifically, Section 503 of Indian Penal Code read with Section 506 of the Indian Penal Code 1860). Thousands of stray dogs live on the streets of Goa. Street canine population is closely associated with municipal sanitation practices or neglect -- these unconfined dogs often survive by scavenging rubbish. Although they are widely feared for carrying rabies, most street dogs are not aggressive and will only bite ...

"A Science teacher needs to work hard" - Rajashree B Karapurkar So how can you take the stress you thought was killing you and make it constructive? Ask Rajashree Bandodkar Karapurkar -- recipient of the Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2019, constituted by Sahitya Akademi , India's national academy of letters. "In the year 2012, my book Taaryachya Vanat Swapnanchi Sahal  was released. Post this, I underwent a lot of stress at my workplace. To keep away from stressful thoughts, I got back to my writing and this book was born," she recalls.  "The book was published in the year 2015 after a gap of three years," she recalls while explaining the journey of the award winning Konkani book, Chitkulya Chinkichye Vishaal Vishwa -- a colourful illustrative book written for children.  Rajashree narrates the contents of her book -- "Little Chinki , a baby ant is curious about the secrets of the environment. During her journey of life, her prote...

The power of our mother language Soumya, a student of class two of a government primary school at Borda, near Margao is carefully reading out a small note written in Marathi. The seven year old hails from Karnataka and lives in Gogol with her parents and siblings. Her father works as a daily wage painter. She says she can speak Kannada but can read Marathi. She is preparing to give a talk on the importance of mother language at an event conducted by an NGO in the school premises to observe International Mother Language Day. As I look on to the child with interest (I am invited by the organizers as a guest of honor), her teacher tells me -- Soumya is bright student! In another corner, a group of little children are preparing to enact a skit and sing a song in thethi, a dialect sounding like Bhojpuri. Their teacher tells me that this group of students belong to a district in Bihar. There are more students as well -- natives of Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, ...

This International Women's Day, Kita Devi and her friends had a lot to celebrate! Zhurram, 30 something, hails from Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. Dressed in a salwar kameez, she is sitted on a bench, engrossed in copying some letters written on a black-board. Sitting besides her on the same bench is Indravati Berma (24), a mother of two and native of Basti, a district in Uttar Pradesh. On the bench behind them is Zannathan Nisha Ali, also from Basti and Rukma Saren from Karnataka. In a tiny class room of a dilapidated government school building in Borda, some three kilometeres from the commercial town of Margao, the lives of these women are getting transformed. Thanks to the Chalo School Mega Drive initiative, women in their 30s and  40s, all from the migrant population, are able to read, write and do math. The education of these women is the beginning of a virtuous cycle, for themselves, their families and the entire community. For educating a woman means transforming liv...

Affirmative Action on Gender Equity  is the Most Urgent Task  Since the March of 2017, I have been deligently working on creating a document encapsulating all that I’ve learned while running campaigns to garner women support in politics. Among other things the document aims to chart practical measures to chip away at the barriers that keep women away. It underlines the need to promote parity in the party's internal structures, include equal representation at party events and conferences, appoint women and men equally to party decision-making positions, provide women members with a platform to voice their questions and place these issues onto the policy agenda at the highest levels of party leadership.  Additionally, this document which can serve as a manual, aims to build discussion platforms to allow women to create networks with other women leaders and their supporters. The challenge is two-fold: 1. sustain our own engagement with the political process on ba...

INDIA WOMEN'S CAUCUS (IWC) A pan India movement led by women to remind the country to keep its promise of more egalitarian lives as promised in the Constitution is underway in India, with its roots in Goa.  Is it outlandish for women to be allowed to have a voice in the government they support with their taxes? Why is then that despite all women's movements, which have had as their general goal -- women's political inclusion, are women still not sharing proportional political power? How does it matter? Its simply that research after research have pointed out that, when women engage in politics, they put important but otherwise neglected issues on the table which have a significant trickle-down effect, benefiting women from all walks of life. That women's interests would best be served by a politically gender-balanced government. Undeniably, it needs a strong political will to support women overcome obstacles that hinder their contribution to national deve...

A call to accelerate GENDER PARITY      A round-table of women, community groups and stakeholders will discuss the topic of gender imbalance in decision making bodies on October 20, 2018 at the Margao Residency Hall, Goa.  W hile the conversation on sexism and sexual harassment is expanding in India with the #MeToo campaign challenging the status quo, it is even more evident how little is done to position issues affecting womens' rights as political priorities. This is critical. Despite governmental claims that adequate resources are spent to reach women -- women from community levels to state to country continue to be struck by challenges. There is an urgent need to rapidly change the quality of women’s daily lives. Too few women at the top means we are all losing out   Providing an environment for changing women’s lives cannot be achieved unless it is considered within a human rights context. And the job of women rights' advocacy groups is...