ahlam1399
03-09-2018, 06:34 PM
JAIPUR, India: Mahima Dutt Sharma rolls her eyes when men make excuses to gawk at her inside the booth where she checks tickets at India´s only interstate train station run entirely by women.
"Even though all the information is displayed on boards, they keep coming again and again with silly queries," she told AFP at Gandhinagar junction in Jaipur, where female station masters and clerks draw astonished looks.
"They are not used to seeing women handling such jobs, so I don´t really blame them." These trailblazers are not just breaking new ground in conservative Rajasthan but upending social norms in India that assume a women´s proper place is in the home.
India is one of the world´s fastest growing major economies but also has one of the lowest rates of female employment, and the trend is worsening. Fewer and fewer women are entering the workforce, particularly in rural areas where most Indians live. Women are staying in school longer, but even two-thirds of those with university degrees are not working, the World Bank says.
This helps explain the fascination with the all-women crew "manning" Gandhinagar as superintendents, conductors and station masters. Urban subway networks in major Indian cities may have train carriages designated for women, but that is less about empowerment than a measure to prevent sexual harassment.
Yet roughly 7,000 passengers passing through the major junction at Gandhinagar -- including Indians from remote tribal corners of the desert region -- come into direct contact with these pioneering women every day. Many passengers travel from villages where women are rarely seen outdoors, let alone managing a major state-run institution from the ground up.Women even staff the bulk of the security detail that patrols the station, muscling in on jobs still considered in many parts of the world to be the realm of men. Seeing women make the trains run on time and round up troublemakers in smart government uniforms remains a leap too far for many men.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~4/7jaLlBrMnQU
أكثر... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~3/7jaLlBrMnQU/290283-india-s-all-women-railway-crew-derail-sexist-attitudes)
"Even though all the information is displayed on boards, they keep coming again and again with silly queries," she told AFP at Gandhinagar junction in Jaipur, where female station masters and clerks draw astonished looks.
"They are not used to seeing women handling such jobs, so I don´t really blame them." These trailblazers are not just breaking new ground in conservative Rajasthan but upending social norms in India that assume a women´s proper place is in the home.
India is one of the world´s fastest growing major economies but also has one of the lowest rates of female employment, and the trend is worsening. Fewer and fewer women are entering the workforce, particularly in rural areas where most Indians live. Women are staying in school longer, but even two-thirds of those with university degrees are not working, the World Bank says.
This helps explain the fascination with the all-women crew "manning" Gandhinagar as superintendents, conductors and station masters. Urban subway networks in major Indian cities may have train carriages designated for women, but that is less about empowerment than a measure to prevent sexual harassment.
Yet roughly 7,000 passengers passing through the major junction at Gandhinagar -- including Indians from remote tribal corners of the desert region -- come into direct contact with these pioneering women every day. Many passengers travel from villages where women are rarely seen outdoors, let alone managing a major state-run institution from the ground up.Women even staff the bulk of the security detail that patrols the station, muscling in on jobs still considered in many parts of the world to be the realm of men. Seeing women make the trains run on time and round up troublemakers in smart government uniforms remains a leap too far for many men.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~4/7jaLlBrMnQU
أكثر... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~3/7jaLlBrMnQU/290283-india-s-all-women-railway-crew-derail-sexist-attitudes)