Our four Safe Public Spaces Mentees are half-way through their projects. This week we are featuring their blog posts about how the projects are going so far. This first post is from our team in Romania. Their projects are supported by SSH donors. If you would like to donate to support the 2016 mentees, we would greatly appreciate it!

Hy. My name is Aila and I am studying my BA in Political Science. Three years ago, I decided to come to the Romanian capital to study at one of the best universities in the field. I chose to stay at the university’s hostel because, as many students think nowadays, all the fun you can have during student years is in hostels.

Well, unfortunately for me and for many other girls, it wasn’t quite like that. I ended up being harassed almost daily by some boys and girls who were studying at the college located near the hostel. After one year I began scheduling my programme after the high school’s programme. In order to avoid the “unwanted attention,” I had to go out of the hostel at specific hours when they had classes, especially during winter when I risked a violent snowball/half-iced fight. Moreover, I always tried not to walk alone or to come home when it was dark outside.

At the beginning, I tried to ignore it sometimes when I heard, “Hey, kitty/gorgeous/baby” as well as the aggressive words connected to my Asian eyes. Then I began to feel so fed up that I started to respond. But it was worse. I was only one and they were always in groups. I had no chance and no help. Sometimes, there were guards but they enjoyed the situation or laughed or only said something mild just to make sure their job is safe.

Today, I can proudly say that I am in a NGO called FILIA that supports gender equality. Today I know that what I went through is called sexual harrasement and it’s a crime. Today I can make something about it.

Thanks to my colleagues from FILIA but also to the Stop Street Harassment team, we are currently developing a mentoring project in that same high school where students harassed me. We want to deliver workshops concerning the topic of street/sexual harassment. It is absolutely necessary for these kids to know about this phenomenon because we consider that they are young and can still change their behaviour.

My group has met a couple of times during the past weeks and we set the framework of the activities. Change can be done. I am not a victim anymore, I am a person who can bring change and can help the other girls who are still living in that hostel.

Aila is a member of the Romanian NGO FILIA. 

Our four Safe Public Spaces Mentees are half-way through their projects. This week we are featuring their blog posts about how the projects are going so far. This first post is from our team in India. Their projects are supported by SSH donors. If you would like to donate to support the 2016 mentees, we would greatly appreciate it!

Street harassment and eve-teasing are common phenomenon in India, especially in public transport and public places. Girls and women usually ignore this ever increasing scourge which is destroying the social fabric of our society. It becomes a source of continuous mental harassment for them and as they face it regularly, then they suffer from low self esteem. In short, they lose their own existence after some time. For example, they keep themselves confined to their homes and rarely move about.

Since, 2010, Safe-Safar has been working to stop street harassment. We have been working to ensure the safety of women on public transport in Lucknow. Through our latest initiative, we are raising awareness about the issue on the streets, pavements, bus stands, railway stations, schools and colleges etc to aware about ‘eve teasing”.

In essence, the Siti Pe Siti or “Whistle for Whistle” is an initiative started by the Yeh Ek Soch Foundation under the Safe-Safar program and is supported by Stop Street Harassment. “Sitis” are a common form of street harassment. When boys whistle at girls, it is termed teasing and society doesn’t view it to be bad. However, if the girls do it to boys, then it is considered bad.

To address this normalized phenomenon, we have come up with “siti pe siti” concept, “whistle for whistle,” where we empower girls and women with a “siti” or “whistle” and the girls can whistle back at boys who whistle at them as a way to draw attention to what they did instead of pretending to ignore the boys and staying silent. This will give the girls a sense of confidence, especially for those who didn’t know what to do when boys whistled at them.

Our goal is to equip the girls with an arm (siti) for giving a timely response to this ever increasing phenomenon happening in colleges, universities and public places, be it railway station, bus stands, etc.

In short, the thing which was proving to be wrong for girls, has in fact become her strength.

Teams of 10 people are raising public awareness at different places through “dialogues” and “nukkad nataks”. The whole campaign will take place across three months. We held the first events this month. On 10th October, 60 youth joined a discussion about street sexual harassment where they discussed the types of harassment and how they stop it in public places. On 14th October, we did a public “seti pe seti” “whistle for whistle” event where we raised public awareness and had people sign pledges to stop street harassment. We are gearing up to hold street plays and more awareness-raising sessions in public places. We plan to hold two activities on a monthly basis. We will also hold a “Safety-Audit” of Metro routes in different areas of Lucknow.

We will close this campaign with a public dialogue.

Our campaign has received a lot of coverage in local newspapers and we were on interviewed on radio city 91.1, a national radio station.

Mohammad Zeeshan is based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India and founded and oversees the Safe-Safar program.