FEMALE FORWARD 2024
Event Feedback: Participation of Women in Strengthening the Democratic Process
Aleah and I are on a plane from Frankfurt to Delhi when our new friend and seat neighbor starts telling us how he just spent €5,000 on his German driver’s license and failed his exam twice. I deeply relate – I tell him how I failed my exam just a week ago and ended up crying. Well, at least we can laugh about it together now. At that moment, he explains, we are flying over the Hindu Kush mountain system. We don’t yet know that our encounter with him is only the first of many more to come in the days ahead. That we will make new friends who will fill our minds with fresh insights, exchange stories with us and who will share moments of laughter with us. And especially that a week of taking in the wisdom of inspiring, accomplished personalities is ahead of us.
To commemorate Girl’s Day on October 11, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation brought together 20 girls from five different countries and organized various meetings with several female entrepreneurs and politicians who offered to share their experiences and engage in discussions. The study tour included stops in New Delhi, Agra and Mathura.
At the hotel we met Divya and Jesha, and I immediately sensed that this would be a good week. They are genuinely caring and competent, enquiring about our well-being, briefing us on the sightseeing tour that had been organized for us and coordinating the arrivals of the participants. We spent the following hours admiring various buildings, towers, gardens, and ending the afternoon at sunset in Lodhi Garden.
Our first day in Delhi concluded with a meeting with the girls we would spend the next few days with followed by a dinner with Elena Gerasimova, who is a Labor Law and Labor Standards Specialist at the International Labor Organization. The ILO’s mission is to promote labor rights and decent working conditions for all people globally.
The following morning, we met with Lieutenant Colonel Archana Singh and journalist Pallavi Rebbapragada. Singh shared insights into the history of women in the military and her own experience as a woman in the military. She mentioned about the significant progress that had been made regarding the position of women in the army in recent years. The Indian Army opened its doors for women in 1992. Social media activism has played a crucial role in advocating for women’s rights within the military. One such achievement is the paid maternity leave of six months being implemented. Talking with us about her experience in the army as a woman, Singh says that people oftentimes view her primarily as a mother and wife and that she always has to prove herself to be seen for the work she does. Not only don’t women get the recognition they deserve but oftentimes we can also observe that the history of astonishing women gets lost. Rebbapragada firmly believes that we should contribute to preserving the remembrance of their accomplishments and recently did so by writing a biography about the politician and author Nandini Satpathy. Her advice for us: “Enjoy life. And choose something that you truly love to do for a living!”
After meeting Archana Singh and Pallavi Rebbapragada we drove to the Austrian Embassy for a lunch with the Austrian Ambassador. This meeting was all about learning everything about her profession. Personally, I was very excited to listen to everything she had to say and I realized that I was not the only one feeling that way: there were a lot of questions from everyone. It’s simply a very interesting profession.
In the afternoon we got to listen to the life experiences and thoughts of four politicians at the Delhi Legislative Assembly: Ashu Thakur, Bhavna Gaur, Sarita Singh and Himani Jain. Ashu Thakur told us about her experience as a woman in politics. She spoke about her experiences of how the opinions of female politicians often get ignored. Thakur confided that this has deeply affected her. She also spoke about how people have questioned her motives and failed to acknowledge her hard work. She told us about the importance of women representing women in politics and that as a politician she made sure to listen to women’s needs and fight for their rights.
Meanwhile, Bhavna Gaur advocates for making politics a noble place, encouraging women from lower and middle class to enter politics, to make it common. Her life’s purpose is to advocate for what she believes in. Like Bhavna Gaur, Sarita Singh started her political career from a young age. She never actively decided to get into politics; it happened naturally when the necessity arose. In her opinion we all have the responsibility to advocate for our rights. A sentence that someone told her, which motivates her activism, is: “To serve the country you can be a common person but you have to be pure at heart and love your country.” And like Bhavna Gaur she wants to make politics a noble place. She tells us that during a movement in 2011, in which many students participated, the driving force for their activism was their belief that “We students don’t hate politics. We love politics.” Their movement later blossomed into a political party. Our last speaker was Himani Jain. Being a teacher motivated her to do something for her community and to adopt nine girls to finance their education.
Back at the hotel we had dinner with Maja-Lisa. She has a bright personality, and it is refreshing to have a conversation with her. It has been a long day, and we have many stories to share with her. She spontaneously joined us for dinner to tell us about her experience of growing up as a daughter of Indian/Austrian parents and moving to India as an adult and about her participation in the LGBTQ+ movement. She grew up not being very familiar with Indian culture and had a mostly similar childhood and youth to her friends with Austrian parents. At 19, she moved to India and was very excited to get to know her parents’ native country. Regarding the LGBTQ+ movement, she and Frank Hoffmann, the Regional Project Manager from FNF, told us that in some parts of India the acceptance of queer people has made a massive progress but unfortunately in some regions, especially rural areas, there still has not been any progress made at all.
The next day, we have a long journey ahead of us, driving to Agra in the morning, having an interesting lunch talk and seeing the Taj Mahal in the afternoon. The drive from Delhi to Agra is smooth and a wonderful opportunity to get to know the participants better by exchanging life stories, ideas for the future, or shared passions.
For lunch we meet some women entrepreneurs who teach us more about the business world and how it works for women in India. Seeing the Taj Mahal in real life is jaw dropping; witnessing the mass of people coming to see it and having the privilege to learn about its history is amazing.
After an exciting afternoon we arrive at our accommodation for the night and enjoy a delicious dinner featuring various Indian curries, rice and naan bread. Today is also Dussehra, a Hindu celebration, where groups of people or communities commemorate the victory of good over evil by burning effigies of different evils. We wanted to honor the celebration by watching one of the effigies burn, but sadly we missed it due to a miscommunication.
On Sunday we start our day by listening to a presentation our two girls from Tibet prepared to give us a better insight of the Tibetan cause. They speak about their own experiences but also refer to the Dalai Lama and the current situation in Tibet.
Following this, we meet Hon’ble Minister of Women and Child Development and Nutrition Uttar Pradesh, Miss Baby Rani Maurya. Despite only having a limited amount of time she gives us many insights regarding the still difficult political and social situation women face.
After checking out, we continue our journey to Mathura, where we had planned to visit different organizations that either support women’s independence or are run by strong women striving to better the world. Unfortunately we face difficulties getting into the city with our big bus and have to revert back to driving to Delhi without seeing the organizations. We are lucky to have a short introduction to Aatma Nirbhar, a woman (I think it should be an organization and not a woman. Please verify.) who represents a social venture teaching women all over India to drive scooters and thus be more independent.
The drive is long and after around eight hours on the bus, we finally arrive in Delhi, marking the end of the official part of our trip and already saying goodbye to some of our newfound friends. Those overnighting at the hotel, along with a few others, head to Dilli Haat, a market in New Delhi, to enjoy the last few hours together.
Talking with my friends on the plane back to Frankfurt we agree that the past four days were filled with moments of awe and incredible luck. We experienced a week of fresh insights and wonderful conversations and witnessed the beautiful ancient architecture of Delhi. All in all, we can say that the opportunity of being Girl's Day was well-utilized with the study trip, providing accomplished women a platform to share their life experiences and knowledge, listen to the different experiences they have as women in various fields of society and for us to gather new perspectives.