UP politics, Hinduism and Women!

Yogi Adityanath has remained in constant limelight after he was appointed as the next CM of Uttar Pradesh (UP). While I had not heard of him earlier, his political presence has been quite prominent in UP as he has won Lok Sabha seats from Gorakhpur constituency 5 consecutive times. In his recent appearance in Aap ki Adalat, an Indian interview-TV programme, Yogi's previous rallies on contentious religious remarks on tit-for-tat on Muslim-Hindu extremism were questioned by the TV anchor. His responses were defensive towards protecting Hinduism, especially Hindu men when he was questioned about 'Love Jihad'.

I was curious to know about his views on women as well, given majority of seat won by BJP in UP are by women candidates. This article today elaborates some of his views. He says the energies of women needs to be controlled and channelised - rightly so; and in most of the cases it is as she has to play the role of Goddess Durga with eight hands. To elucidate, let us find out the statistics of accidents caused by women drivers on Indian roads and we will get a better picture of how productive they are!

That being said, I appreciate his thoughts on how women need to be protected and provided for by men. However, at this point in time, Yogiji must not presume, but realise that all Hindu men are not saints like him! They are full of flaws due to freedom of choice - the same choices he says women need to control. These choices, which men have enjoyed without restraint have brought about much perils in the society: they have made men lazy, unproductive, jealous of their women counterparts, take up intoxication, make wasteful expenditure and beat their wives. It is centuries of this oppression that made women take up jobs in which men excelled as men failed to provide for their women and made them feel less. In Indian society, how many sisters, wives or mothers are made to feel like old Indian 'Queens or Princesses'. Yogiji talks about the times that have gone behind and in the present generation, women have to fight harder, even more hard than men to get basic education - to reach their respective schools and workplaces as their fathers and brothers are either not supportive nor willing to provide for their well-being and happiness.

When Yogiji talks about Hindu men with so much confidence, he must look at the overall scenario of the nation, including that of UP! For instance, if any of us goes towards the North East - Arunachal Pradesh for instance, you will find the men of the State intoxicated with alcohol. It is the women of the state who brave themselves up, tying infants on their back to earn their daily wages by breaking mountain rocks for construction of highways. Mind you this state is one of the most challenging geographical parts of the world for building roads and it is women who are laying down the foundation for it not men! If this kind of hard labour not get the worst out of a women and make her a Rakshasa, what will!

Hinduism may be the most liberal religions but certainly Hindu men need to learn a lot from the positive quadrants of the religion as many more of them are drawn to westernisation than women being being influenced by western Feminism. Hinduism talks about Karma, about institution of marriage, non-alcoholism and respecting women. How many men follow these principles? Let us not even get started on the crime statistics on women in India - but this would be a blockbuster starting point on the debate on success of Hinduism on gender front!         

#SheMeansBusiness

Facebook is running the #SheMeansBusiness campaign that was organised at Hotel Lalit on March 1, 2017. The opening session made me feel like it was perhaps a publicity stint for launching FbStart. The event was attended by several women entrepreneurs from Delhi, who were mostly sole proprietors doing well in the offline platform. The event threw importance of using tech for business by women, importance of collaboration and co-learning by women in start-ups. The scale at which the event was organised brought about much hope of steering women's business through the internet.

The story of three women entrepreneur was encouraging - Durga, Naiyya and the beautiful tennis player - they gave bold replies to the session organised by Tanvi Dubey or HerStory editor. Some of the interesting exchanges are as follows:

1. Cold calling: Yes, it is good to cold call as it shows your passion. But do your homework - prepare a protocol before approaching someone - it would reflect your seriousness.

2. Using network: use your immediate network of institutions. They will share experience and insights that will help. It will also help in giving a perspective about what has been done so that you will not repeat mistakes or duplicate.

3. Testing the product: It is important to test the product on YouTube before launching it officially. Also, do not go directly for making an app.

4. Importance of women leading: It was shared that although few men are great 'feminist' mentors, they are still unable to leading women as they do not understand the problems with the ecosystem.

5. Problem-solving approach: There is a need to define the problem clearly and building a team to ask questions.

6. Building a team: It is important to build a team and find co-founders who do not have the same skillsets as yours. Small input with high RoI is the way to go. You must focus on your own skills and you do not have to be good at everything.

7.  Gender bias: The forum discussed prevalent issues about gender bias in the start-up ecosystem, starting from dominance of male-run start-ups, lack of work-life balance and appropriate support system for women and investors asking questions about marriage and having a baby to women entrepreneurs. These questions need deep routed academic responses not blanket responses.

8. Key challenges: To conclude, main bottlenecks that women face in start-ups are as follows:

• lack of investor confidence
• lack of strong network
• lack of tools and technical mentorship 
• lack of visibility and early traction
• multi-year commitment

9. Policy for women: There is a need for big digital initiatives like literacy model, venture funds with separate rounds for women, partnering with platforms like FB, CISCO, Intel, Google under the Digital India campaign.

10. Women's day comes in March as it represents bloom.  

11. Some suggestions to succeed:

• Amplification strategy
• Women must support each other, not be detractors (as whatever women do, they do it with force)
• Women must not be diffident of themselves and talk unapologetically (not prefixing sentences with If I may, To the best of my knowledge etc.)
• Women must get out there and influence each other
• Women must curtail the desire to please everyone - feel guilty even when they are right. Conveying a point of view is essential not necessarily accommodating everyone.
• Women entrepreneurs must use majority of open source platforms to curtail costs.