A Smart City is not about wide roads, beautiful landscapes, an efficient drainage system and better traffic; it is the mindset of the people living there which defines its character, an eminent social worker said here.
“Safety of women and attention given to the handicapped and underprivileged decide how smart a city is. It is not about branded clothes, the shade of a girl’s lipstick or the brand of a boy’s shaving cream,” Namrata Chadha, a former Member of the State Women’s Commission, said while speaking at a workshop held to create awareness against gender discrimination at the SOA University on Saturday.
The workshop was jointly organised by the SOA NSS Bureau, the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Dhal also spoke at the workshopfocusing on the society’s refusal to change.
“What is needed is a change in the mindset of the people who need to view things in proper perspective. Girls face discrimination everywhere, both within the family and outside,” Chadha said, adding, “We still find matrimonial advertisements ‘looking for beautiful, fair, tall, educated and homely girls’ as match for boys.”
And at interviews, girls are asked “Can you work during the night?” she said, fuming, “It reeks of discrimination.”
“Why is it that the tradition of people from a boy’s family visiting a girl’s home during matrimonial negotiation still continues? Why doesn’t it happen the other way round?,” Chadha asked.
Lincon Subudhi, who has been campaigning against child marriage, said the problem stemmed from the fact that people refuse to respect a woman.
“If we refuse to take responsibility for a nation’s development and are not worried about things happening around us, such a mindset will continue,” she said.
Talking about smart cities, Subudhi said it is the responsibility of the people of the city to protest discrimination and prevent atrocities against women and children.
“We need to build that kind of a system using technology to ensure the safety of women and children,” she said.
Social worker Pritichhanda Dhal hit out at the ‘double standards’ in people’s mentality which allow violence and discrimination against women. “We may have advanced technologically, but our mindset has been on a downhill trip,” she observed.
