`Viranganas’ Chant 'No Compromise' Mantra On Women’s Day

No one should have to feel lonely and uncared for in this world, said 63-year-old Elina Dasgupta Dutta, who is one of the founders of a city-based eldercare platform, and a “domestic abuse survivor”.

The sexagenarian woman, who started Tribeca Care with two others around a decade ago, told PTI on the occasion of International Women’s Day that she wanted to give people, who did not have anyone to look after them, a life of dignity, after having “suffered pain and humiliation in her marriage with little or no support”.

Talking more about the senior citizen platform, she said that trained care managers attend to the elderly people of the city, mostly left behind by children who have moved abroad, and assist them in every possible way, taking care of their medical needs, too, “just as a son or daughter should do”.

Elina, however, clarified that the fee charged for the services usually goes into paying the staff members, and she doesn’t expect anything in return for her initiative. Having suffered two thrombosis attacks, Elina said that she is still healing from the “physical and mental torture” which she had suffered.

“I wish to tell women who are putting up with abuses like I did that it was time to break the shackles. I have written a survival guide for them, and it has been endorsed by two NGOs, which carry it on their website,” she added.

Reflecting on her experiences as a politician, rights activist and CPI(M) leader Saira Shah Halim, in a similar vein, said that she was shocked and perplexed to have seen the “sexism at play” during her by-poll campaign in the posh Ballygunge constituency in South Kolkata.

Women should never let prejudice and adversities dissuade them in their journey, Halim who has often been described as a `Virangana’ (woman warrior) by her colleagues asserted.

“Politics is not for the faint-hearted, and for women it’s doubly difficult. I remember that an opposition party had made my lifestyle, my choice of clothes a big issue during the campaign. I was told that I am too modern to be a Muslim. Despite having worked for the disenfranchised for long, the kind of comments that came my way during the electioneering gave me severe anxiety.”

She, however, insisted that more women should join politics, as they are more disposed to show empathy to the distressed. Adding to the narrative, Dhriti Banerjee, the first woman to be director of the 108-year-old Zoological Survey of India, said that things have changed for the better over the years, but there is still some ground left to be covered.

“Initially, safety was an issue for women during field visits (for flora and fauna surveys). Also, there was no provision for women’s toilets during such visits. There would be times when people at the helm would be in two minds about sending women for such surveys,” said the 53-year-old determined scientist, who has won many accolades at home and abroad.

She pointed that things however have changed for the better over the years. “Many women now helm the regional centres of ZSI. There was some scepticism over my elevation to the post of director, but that lasted for a month. I am not the person who takes things lightly and cracks the whip, when necessary. It wasn’t long before the acceptance grew and everything fell in place,” she explained.

Summing up, Sanghamitra Bandopadhyay, another distinguished woman scientist who scored by becoming the first lady  Director of the prestigious Indian Statistical Institute, said that she was fortunate to have received support from her family, but knows of many others who couldn’t pursue their profession for the lack of it.

“It feels good when students come up to me to say that my achievements have inspired them. However, I also know about women who have given up on their work life for family affairs as they are socially conditioned to do so. Many of them later regretted the fact that they gave up on their work life,” she said.

Bandopadhyay is a path breaking expert in artificial or machine intelligence and was given the prestigious Padma Shri award for her work last year. Her current research interests include computational biology and bioinformatics, soft and evolutionary computation, pattern recognition and data mining.

“I wish to tell all women out there that they should choose their battles wisely, and learn to say no to compromises beyond a certain point,” said the scientist who has also been awarded many other accolades including the Bhatnagar Prize, Infosys award and  TWAS Prize.