Safe Madurai & a look back at 2012

We had a brief meeting today to discuss the safety audits that local college students and EKTA team members will be conducting across Madurai in the next few weeks. The auditors will travel 5 or 6 routes that the students frequently take to get around the city (for instance, from a busy bus stop to Periyar bus stand) and take note of safety deficits and areas that feel unsafe. These audits will be conducted multiple times. The goal is to gain similar assessments of problems and recommendations for creating a safer Madurai as presented in this study on the safety of women and girls in public spaces in Kerala.

Another on-going project is a review and analysis of all of EKTA's activities in 2012. It is astonishing what a busy year we had! Looking at our projects month-by-month really demonstrates the comprehensive and multifaceted approach ETKA takes to work towards gender equality and the promotion and protection of women's human rights. Here's a list of  some of the diverse trainings, campaigns, and initiatives we've pursued over the last 12 months:

• Participated in a national consultation on the declining child sex ratio in India
• Ran several gender equality seminars and gender & masculinities workshops at colleges and universities across Madurai
• Participated in the UN Women's Consultation on violence against women
• Launched the One Billion Rising campaign, which continues to February 2013
• Part of the People's Budget Initiative at the national level to develop suggestions for the Finance Minister
• Partook in the CEDAW Alternative Report planning consultation in Delhi
• Began and completed an extensive study on women's voting patterns in Tamil Nadu and Orissa, in collaboration with CARE India
• Continued our governance program and trainings, in collaboration with The Hunger Project, with elected women leaders
• Executed the 16 Days of Activism campaign, which included a mobile van campaign that brought information on gender-based violence to women and men in villages in Tamil Nadu
• Conducted group and individual counseling at schools for at-risk students
• Participated in South Asian Women's Day celebrations 
• Helped to launch a new initiative of the Women's Coalition for Change
• Organized and conducted a 10 day capacity building training course on gender and development for women activists from Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka (with our partner SANGAT New Delhi)