‘Achhe Din’ for women ‘kab aayenge’? Mr Modi, please listen

News travels fast and bad news travels faster. Today, I was asked by an Uber cab driver (and this was the third time in a day in the Bay Area) – “Is it very dangerous for women to travel alone in India?” Honestly, I did not know how best to answer it. Should I say, “No, it’s not like that, actually these incidents keep happening all over the world, why single India out?” Or, accept it and say, “Yes, India is a difficult place for women. I feel quite ok travelling alone here but not back home in my country.”

The Uber incident in Delhi has far reaching consequences Mr Modi.

Like millions in this country, I was happy when you came to power. You represented change. Among many things, change from the general worsening of the condition of women in our country. I believed “acchhe din aayenge” and more so as a woman because as you pointed out that ‘women, youth and farmers’ will be your priority.

Women have been waiting for ‘achhe din’ for a long, long time now. We were taught early on that यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते, रमन्ते तत्र देवा (women are honored where divinity blossoms there). We soon realized that it is unfortunately not the case for us and our country.

Let me be clear. I don’t want to sound like your opponents and blame you for the rapes that happen in the country. After all it’s not a new thing; it is part of our lives.

But I would earnestly request you to please consider doing something real, and doing something concrete rather than a symbolic gesture of banning Uber and letting the incident pass. As we are aware in the next few days (after some media noise) this too shall pass from the collective memory of our country, society and individuals.

Please look at these steps when you talk about women empowerment:

1. Please understand (and most surely you do) that women empowerment is not about awarding some women and felicitating a few women or just on-boarding some women workforce in the administration. Women empowerment will truly happen when you do a sustained programme in sensitizing the men of this country. It’s deep. It needs a sustained effort. It needs to be done. The previous government also talked about ban and punishment etc, we expect you to go deeper and start attacking the cause rather than quick fixes.

2. Like your Swachh Bharat campaign, why not launch a campaign for Jagruk Samaj (aware society) or Jagruk Naujawan (aware youth). Let this campaign run all over the country and make it spread through all the media channels. Media loves you (see how they keep reporting about your every move), please use them effectively to make this your another missionary campaign.

3. Rather than awarding a few women, please launch an awards programme for the male of this country, and in your amazing nationalistic fervour, we can call it the Purushottam (the best man) Award, please go as local as we can with this (you have all the power and access to implement it).These are some of my initial thoughts. Of course, you can deploy the best brand experts to create it into the most inspirational award for men who support and respect women.

A ban creates (maybe) fear but does not instil respect. And you see, that is what is missing in our country today.