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Girls can do anything, proves Indian teen who climbed Everest

Girls can do anything, proves Indian teen who climbed Everest

16-year-old Shivangi Pathak hoisting the national flag at the highest peak in the world.

16-year-old Shivangi Pathak hoisting the national flag at the highest peak in the world.

By Mudita Girotra,

Hisar (Haryana) : On May 15 this year, a teenaged girl from Haryana embarked on the very challenging task of climbing Mount Everest from the Nepal side. But having dropped her radio transceiver during the trek, she couldn’t inform anyone about her whereabouts.

With no one able to contact her, there was hushed speculation that 16-year-old Shivangi Pathak might have lost her life in one of the world’s toughest mountain terrains.

After a tense 10 hours, a great piece of news came down the mountain and, later, her family in Hisar got to know about her epic triumph — she had become the youngest Indian woman to scale the highest peak of the Himalayas.

“We were extremely worried about her safety. Our whole family kept praying for hours for her safety without eating or drinking,” Shivangi’s mother Aarti Pathak, 42, told IANS.

“It was after a really long ordeal that we got to know that not only was our girl safe, but that she had also scaled the summit. I cannot describe in words what it felt like to hear this news. We are so proud of her. She achieved what she was determined to,” the mother said.

Now a recognisable celebrity across India, the journey of this go-getter girl to this huge accomplishment began with a joke made by her mother.

“We got to hear of an Everest summiter (Mamta Sodha) being appointed as a Deputy Superintendent of Police. I jokingly told Shivangi to do something as big so she gets a similar job,” Aarti said.

Later, Shivangi saw some videos on Arunima Sinha, the first Indian amputee to climb the peak. Inspired by her, Shivangi, in November 2016, decided to climb the Everest.

She trained herself for just over a year to prepare for the challenge.

The trainer she approached initially criticised her for being “too stylish” with her hair. “She asked me if I have come to the ground or for a fashion walk. I was fat, and had long hair then,” Shivangi recalled. “It hurt. I thought that maybe I am dreaming too big.”

What seemed too big then eventually became a reality with her hard work and dedication. She got her hair cut short and toiled to get in shape. Weighing 65 kgs two years back when she decided to climb the summit, she now weighs only 48 kgs.

“I started shaping myself according to the requirements of the sport. I got my hair cut very short, started training under the same trainer, Rinku Pannu. She is my guru. She encouraged me to do it. I am immensely grateful to her,” said Shivangi.

“It is pretty funny that because I had short hair, girls who came to the ground started hitting on me thinking of me to be a boy,” she laughed.

The training session went on for six to seven hours every day. Shivangi didn’t attend school and dedicated all her time preparing to climb the Everest.

One training session included a 10-km run, weight lifting, rope -skipping. She was made to run with a backpack of 20 kgs on her shoulders.

“At times, she would tie ankle weights and run. When tired, she put them on her wrist,” said her 27-year-old trainer.

One day during her training, she suddenly woke up from her sleep around 11.30 pm as she was yet to jump rope 200 times.

“I had promised my trainer that day that I would do it 5,000 times but I couldn’t complete. So, I woke up in between to do it before midnight,” said the summiter.

Pannu exclaimed, “Look at her dedication!”

On April 1, she landed in Nepal from where she trekked up to the base camp where she reached by April 5. This was followed by over two weeks of acclimatisation.

Finally, on May 10, she began her “Everest Mission”, as she called it.

“The route was full of stones and pebbles, and it was very slippery. There were many struggles. A storm hit the range a day before I reached the summit,” Shivangi said, adding that she had to constantly motivate herself to overcome all hurdles.

“Ice on the way was very hard. It wouldn’t break. Stepping on it would make us slip. There was also a day when I fell sick due to the weather conditions, but I refused to give up,” she said.

She was accompanied by a Nepalese guide, Ang Temba Sherpa, who was with her throughout the journey.

“My guide was like god for me in that journey — he treated me like a younger sister, didn’t let me miss my family. He was with me through all ups and downs,” she explained.

On May 15, at 8.21 am, she made it. “The first person on my mind was my mother. I desperately wanted to embrace her at that moment. I was so happy I made her proud.”

Hoisting the national flag at the highest peak of the Himalayas was “a great feeling” for her. “It was a moment of pride for me. This achievement turned out to be an inspiration for many girls in Haryana and in the country,” she said.

“I feel girls can do anything. They can go anywhere. They just have to make up their mind and have faith and determination towards what they want,” she added.

She urged girls’ parents to “encourage and support” them in their goals and never let them feel they are less than the boys.

“My parents were the biggest support and that is why I know how important it is for a girl to have her parents standing by her in her decisions,” she added.

Her next target is to climb to the highest summits of the rest of the continents before she turns 18.

“Seven summits before 18,” she said.

Pannu (her coach) said that this was going to be a cakewalk for her.

“She has climbed the highest in the world, reaching the highest of the other six continents won’t be tough.”

“She is a girl of ambition. She made so many sacrifices. She never complained even when she was made to slog, gave up on all her food delights, lost weight, made herself physically fit. I have confidence in her. She can do it, she will,” Pannu said.

(The weekly feature series is part of a positive-journalism project of IANS and the Frank Islam Foundation. Mudita can be contacted at mudita.g@ians.in)

—IANS

Cabinet nod for death penalty for raping children below 12

Cabinet nod for death penalty for raping children below 12

Cabinet nod for death penalty for raping children below 12New Delhi : The Union Cabinet on Saturday approved an ordinance that provides for death penalty to those convicted of raping a child below the age of 12 and life term for raping a girl below age of 16.

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018, approved at cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeks to provide effective deterrence against rape and instill a sense of security among women, particularly young girls in the country.

The government also decided to put in place a number of measures for speedy investigation and trial of rape cases including a two month time limit for investigation, two months for completion of trial and six months for disposal of appeals.

There will be no provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of rape or gang rape of a girl under 16 years.

The Cabinet also decided to strengthen investigation and prosecution including setting up fast track courts, and special forensic labs in each state besides maintaining a national database of sexual offenders.

The ordinance came in the wake of a nation-wide outrage over rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir, and other instances in different parts of the country including rape of a nine-year-old girl in Surat.

Sources said the government has taken a serious note of the rape incidents in the country and has decided on a comprehensive response to deal with the situation, with the ordinance approved in view of urgency and seriousness of the issue.

The ordinance seeks to amend the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act by stringent provisions in case of rape of children and minors.

It provides that punishment for rape of a girl under 12 years will be minimum 20 years imprisonment or imprisonment for rest of life or with death.

Punishment for gang rape of a girl under 16 years of age will invariably be imprisonment for rest of life of the convict.

In case of gang rape of a girl below 12 years, punishment will be imprisonment for rest of life or death sentence.

The minimum punishment in case of rape of women has been increased from rigorous imprisonment of seven years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment.

In case of rape of a girl under 16 years, minimum punishment has been increased from 10 years to 20 years, extendable to imprisonment for rest of life, which shall mean imprisonment till that person’s natural life.

The ordinance also provides that court has to give notice of 15 days to Public Prosecutor and the representative of the victim before deciding bail applications in case of rape of a girl under 16 years of age.

The Cabinet also approved a number of important measures in order to give effect to the legal provisions and to improve the capacity of criminal justice system to deal with rape cases.

As part of strengthening the courts and prosecution, new Fast Track Courts will be set up in consultation with states and union territories and high courts. New posts of public prosecutors will be created besides setting up related infrastructure in consultation with the states.

There will be dedicated manpower for investigation of rape cases in a time-bound manner. Police Stations and hospitals will be provided with special forensic kits for rape cases.

Special forensic labs will be set up in each state and union territory to deal exclusively with rape cases.

The measures will form part of a new mission mode project to be launched within three months.

As part of measures to strengthen the national database, the National Crime Records Bureau will maintain a national database and profile of sexual offenders, and this will be regularly shared with states and union territories for tracking, monitoring and investigation, including verification of antecedents by police.

The present scheme of One Stop Centres for assistance to victim to be extended to all districts in the country.

—IANS

Empowering rural women, girls: India’s insight at UN

Empowering rural women, girls: India’s insight at UN

Empowering rural women, girlsBy Arul Louis,

United Nations : India has shared with other countries its insights on empowering rural women and girls at an event on the sidelines of the meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women drawing on its many programmes.

Leaders, diplomats and activists heard about how India was combating domestic violence, trying to right the unbalanced sex ratio, increasing women’s political participation and providing financial services and educational opportunities for women and girls.

This was at the session on “Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls: Experiences from India” organised by India’s UN Mission and UN Women on Wednesday.

The deeply entrenched patriarchal mindset is responsible for many of the problems women face and action to change them must be taken on a warfooting, said Nandini Azad, president of the Indian Co-operative Network for Women.

It has to start with resocialisation of boys, who have been trained in patriarchy and consider violence against women and various forms of oppressing them to be normal, she said and recounted her experiences with conducting workshops for boys and campaigns.

The sex ratio imbalance is a serious issue and finding a solution has to start with making the girl child valuable, Azad said.

While prosecuting sex-selected foeticide and providing for the health of girls are vital, changing the mindset is more important and India was undertaking one of the biggest campaigns for it, she added.

Subhalakshmi Nandi of UN Women India said that the ads and jingles produced for the campaign can have an impact in changing the mindset by starting a discussions on the status of women and reconsidering patriarchy.

To help women in rural areas deal with domestic violence, India has set up one-stop centres where women can get police action, psychosocial help, medical care and legal assistance, said Jupaka Madhavi, a Senior Consultant with the National Mission for Empowerment of Women.

India started with 36 such centres where women can get all the help in one place, and after two years it is now increasing them to 286 centres, she said.

The centres are called “Sakhi” or “Friend” and they are developed appropriately into places where women can find people to speak and find shelter, she said.

The data gathered about the women, their experiences and the perpetrators of violence are monitored in Delhi in realtime so they can get a picture of what is happening around the country and focus their action accordingly, Madhavi said.

Paulomi Tripathi, a diplomat at India’s UN Mission, said because of the size of India’s population and the large number of women living in rural areas, the government’s programmes to raise their status and empower them will have a global impact and be essential for achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals.

India’s efforts for bettering the lives of women and girls in rural areas are multi-dimensional and touch every vital area of their lives, she added.

Chetan Sanghi, a Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, said: “We would like to change the paradigm to women-led development.”

If there was one area where there is consensus across the political spectrum, it is on improving the status of women, he said, listing 24 programmes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has undertaken to specifically benefit women.

These range from providing free cooking gas and constructing toilets to ensuring availability of financial services and digital training in rural areas, he said.

On social issues, India has taken long strides like outlawing instant divorce, he said.

It has by law increased paid maternity leave to six months from three months, he said.

Although some responses to it were not positive and some employers demurred in allowing them or discriminated in hiring because of it, virtual portals were set up for complaints and employers were made to change their decisions, he added.

In politics, there are 1.3 million elected women representatives at the local level and 20,000 of them have so far undergone training to enable them to take charge and act independently, he said.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

—IANS

Where girls pretend to be boys: A bittersweet Afghan social tradition

Where girls pretend to be boys: A bittersweet Afghan social tradition

Bacha Posh - Afghan girl (For representational purpose only)

Bacha Posh – Afghan girl (For representational purpose only)

By Zarifa Sabet,

The term “Bacha Posh” literally translated from the local Dari language means a “girl dressed like a boy”. There are families who bring up their daughters as sons and, once they reach puberty, the girls usually must return to being girls. Parents who have no sons prefer to convert one of their daughters into a Bacha Posh to raise their social standing. In a society where having a male child is of utmost importance and a matter of pride, Bacha Posh provides social relief.

The Bacha Posh is treated like any other male, but must unlearn her gender-defined identity on turning 17 or 18. Her speech, her walk, her mobility outside the home, all these aspects have to change. It is a practice that dates back centuries, but it is not easy to accept nor is its provenance known.

In almost every era of history, there have been women who took on the role of men when being a woman became impossible to sustain. Jenny Nordberg argues that there were hundreds of women who lived as men between the 16th and 19th centuries. Many were discovered to be women only when their bodies were carried off the battlefield. They took on a male identity for reasons similar to the Bacha Posh in Afghanistan today. Some needed to support themselves and their families. Others needed it to escape harsh traditional norms for women to get the freedom they sought.

As historians have documented, by the 19th century, in Europe, the frequency of women who dressed as men seemed to diminish. The reason was, “an increasingly organised society where various forms of civil registration such as border controls and mandatory medical examinations for soldiers made it more difficult for women to pass as men”.

There is a close link between gender and freedom. In Afghanistan, just as it is globally, freedom is a very important idea. Defining one’s gender becomes a concern only after freedom is achieved and Bacha Posh is a struggle for freedom.

According to the United Nations, Save the Children and the Thompson Reuters Foundation, Afghanistan is the worst country in the world to be born a girl, with the average life expectancy of a woman being 44 years. Being born a girl in Afghanistan is to be condemned to a half-life. At best, being a girl child is viewed with disappointment. At worst, it is a humiliation which calls for desperate measures, because having even one boy child is mandatory for good standing and reputation while no sons provokes contempt.

To overcome these hurdles, some Afghan families choose for their daughter to be Bacha Posh. The practice has existed right under the surface as a way to creatively buck a system of gender segregation, where being born a girl always required survival efforts and a resilience difficult to imagine.

There is deep gender division and gender-based discrimination, to which Bacha Posh can be a short-term alternative. Being unaware of its future consequences, the girl suffers psychological trauma, identity crises and more.

It is hard for a country with harsh gender segregation to allow for such deviation, but this practice predates Islam in Afghanistan. Because of the prevalent “don’t ask, don’t tell” norm, each Afghan family will keep the secret of such a child to themselves, which is why there are no exact numbers on Bacha Posh in the country.

There are many reasons for Afghan families to pretend that their girls are boys. According to the New York Times, these are poverty and need for the girls to work outside home, social pressure to have sons and, in some cases, superstition that doing so can actually lead to the birth of a real boy.

It is not difficult to make a girl child a Bacha Posh. Just cut her hair and dress her in typical Afghan men’s clothing. There are no specific legal or religious proscriptions against the practice in Afghanistan.

Sons are more valued in Afghanistan, since tribal culture permits only sons to inherit the father’s wealth and pass down the family name; families without boys are the objects of pity and contempt.

Although cross-dressing is something which people in most societies are not comfortable with, in Afghanistan it is one form of victimising women. For Afghan women, freedom has a very simple meaning: To avoid unwanted marriage and to be able to leave the house. Being a Bacha Posh is a price girl children pay for freedom; to study, to have a profession, to marry. However, while they initially gain some freedom, there is always the fear that their identity would be discovered, while the transition back to reality can leave a permanent psychological scar.

Bacha Posh is a struggle for a little freedom of girls in a highly patriarchal, male-dominated society.

(Zarifa Sabet works as a Gender Officer in Action Aid International, Afghanistan. The article is in special arrangement with South Asia Monitor)

—IANS