Tag: socialstigma

IMPACT HOUR With Swetha Varma

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Written by Sahithi Divi as told by Swetha Varma

Actor, Human Rights Influencer, Engineer

Swetha is born and bought up in Hyderabad whose mother tongue is konkani as her mom is from Goa. She speaks six languages in total and she is a self made actor who has made her imprint in the field of performance and acting. She went on to experiment her liking with camera through anchoring which ultimately pulled her to acting where she belongs. As a child she wanted to be everything she saw. Curious about various roles played by people in the society, she often comprehended imagination to her future career choice and found herself wanting to be something each day. She enjoyed the cultural diversity and possessed varied interests. She did not have to abide by common norms around a girl child due to having a multicultural family and open minded parents. The world around her and the education system does not promote the art talents of students on power with academics which creates a longing gap between life dream and characteristics exhibited by a child as a natural talent. Peculiarities of children must be embraced and given importance by providing more resources , she says.

She was doing her undergrad in electronics and communications engineering when she saw the advertisement of the miss hyderabad contest. Swetha took the first step of enrolling with the 3000 other beautiful women, walked the ramp in her flip flops and made it to the top 20 finalists. Process of the beauty contest gave her essential learnings about the acting scenario. She transformed herself into a free spirit walking on high heeled stilettos making herself differentiate with her exceptional answers to the jury about sustainable environment. This whole experience gave her the learning curve and network exposure. She then ventured into some trails for anchoring. One day she suddenly agreed to a short film with a book, as her first remuneration.

Swetha came across behavioural hurdles from different directions. Alongside the personal parameters of being a strong opinionated woman in a male dominated industry , she also explains that there is a lot of stigma attached to how the main leads are perceived. Short films, web series, cameos and traditional film making are the various platforms where she has acted. She has been vocal about exploitation in order to provide her voice to others who are unable to get opportunities due to adversity towards non consensensual demands made by powerful people. She emphasises how important it is to have a perquisite screening process for actors according to the role.

She has chosen very bold and socially challenging characters to play in search of adventure in her field. Owning her life is her greatest assest. She is a fearless influencer of positivity and attracts stories which can open her to new dimensions. Like she played the main lead in a movie called Rani in which she played four characters. In 2020 she is looking forward to six releases in which she is playing the main lead character. From her last experiences she thoughtfully understood what she can bring to table.

When asked about her take aways for the aspiring young actors she laminates the importance of working continuously on oneself, dealing inclusively about emotions, believe and love your dreams unconditionally. She says that it is very important to observe compassionately and learn new skills everyday. As an actor an individual interacts with a production house, director and audience with contrasting environments that demands constant updation to skills.

Swetha defines democracy as yet to arrive, women as shakti and love as freedom to choose. She says , The world will say , don’t be an actor and every-time you hear that , evolve into a stronger person. She resonates to sustainable development goal five of gender equality by using her platform to voice rights violation especially for women and goal number seventeen by partnering with impact-scientist by sharing her experience to empower others.

Written by Sahithi Divi ( source : http://www.impactscientist.com )

When To Get Married And To Whom ?

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Written By Sahithi Divi ( Sustainable Development Goal 5 of UNDP 2030 Goal )

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image represental

United Nation Population Fund , 140 million girls will become child brides by 2020 in india

Giving birth is a choice, being born is not. Once if a baby comes onto this planet, then it our individual responsibility to strengthen the social complexity for a girl surrounding her. A girl even without a right to vote can she be ready for forced sex and child bearing ? Every girl has been restricted from unlocking her place in the world saying ” The Society” will not accpet. Each of you reading this compiles of the society but you again draw boundaries for a girl saying some other set of families might not agree to your perception of living life.

Marriage is a very transformative phase of a person’s life. Although after the marriage takes place the complexity can occur from both the sides. Yet the age, person, child birth , continuation of education, pursuance of a career, personal choices are navigated by the family just for a ‘women’ mostly.

Isn’t it ?

https://www.newindianexpress.com/

When must a women get married and to whom ?

The answer is –

IT IS A WOMEN’S RIGHT TO CHOOSE WHEN SHE WANTS TO GET MARRIED AND TO WHOM ! ALSO ILLEGAL TO PERFORM A CHILD MARRIAGE FOR A GIRL BELOW THE AGE OF 18 AND BOY BELOW 21 .

But as per the UNICEF report even today in India 27 % of the girls are married before the age of 18 , that is 1 out of 3 girls. India also has the highest number of child brides in the world which accounts to 15,509,000 girls.

National Geographic website – image source

Socio economic conditions being the major reason for the early marriage . Whom to marry is still decided by the 
the parent / guardian / family, for which we do not have verified data. Whom a girl marries is the most important factor because personal accomplishment in such a socially complex environment is hard. There is a constant fight for self empowerment leading to the world never expiriencing her full potential. This is a serious loss to the country.

This concern arises because only 25 % of the graduate women are in the work force today.

The government is working up to provide various incentives / schemes to improvise the overall conditions for the vulnerable women. But I strongly commend that most of the human rights issues have to be addressed more from a personal level to attain the maximum impact. Cross polinating the education about women rights and creating awareness can be done by you.

In cities for example, your house help, watchman, driver, gardner etc. are the people facing the vulnerability. Some parents are adement due to lack of education, some are afraid about the security of their girl child, some are unable to afford the cost and most of them are deeply affected by the conclusions given by the so called community or society around them.

Give your voice and counsel as many people around you about the mental and health benefits for not only the girl but also which will reflect on the overall social health of the family. Educate and encourage girls to be able to speak about their preference of choice or make a choice about who they must marry.

AGE – You can click on the below link to read the Indian Laws –

The child marriage prohibition act – click here

PERSONAL RIGHTS OF CHOICE – You can click on the link below to read the Indian Laws

Women Rights In your Favour

let us act now !

Take The Gender Equality Pledge Here

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Written By Sahithi Divi

( stat source – http://legislative.gov.in/sites/default/files/A2007-06.pdf , https://yourstory.com/2016/06/laws-that-protect-women-rights ) ( child marriage image courtesy : https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/south-asia/India-has-second-highest-number-of-child-marriages-Unicef/article11131187.ece , https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2019/mar/28/tripura-reports-second-highest-child-marriages-rate-in-india%E2%80%8B-1957202.html , https://www.freeonlineindia.in/child-marriage-social-issue-history/ )

Life Of Women Is Like a River

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Comparing a women’s life to that of a river ..

Poetry Written By Sahithi Divi –

What is the meaning of your birth ?

The action plan for freedom ?

Existence is a gentle reminder ,

That you are a  nature’s blissful seed.

Flowing through the rocks of contentment ,

Expelling your art to adverse changes ,

When the time comes, you always made it .

Taking stand of transforming seasons ,

You fiercely move towards horizons .

Hard to introspect who has set the direction ,

However your life has channelised ,

Life still asks you for a share, isn’t it?

Forcing her years towards a destination,

Today becomes irrelevant for her.

And also irreversible !

Unconscious delivery of love, 

Motivated by expensive patriarchy,

You will be told to match the goals ….

After all the exhaustion, 

When you fall into the sea ….

Introspection comes to life ,

That soo many reviewed your growth ,

The Micro opiniated directions ,

Have all lead you to unfold ,

What you haven’t owned ,

About your life….

Then the question arises again ,

What is the meaning of your birth ?

Written By Sahithi Divi

Daughters Are The Human Capital Of India ?

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Written By Sahithi Divi

” Women consists of 48 % of population in India “

India is still expecting it’s daughters to silence their voices to the fury of dominance. Every time a girl is quiet, she is hiding enormous amount of power that is a wasted human capital that could have reflected towards a stronger foundation including the opinions and point of views of it’s 48 % of unheard screams. The policy making and leadership must not have been dictated under the reign of unequally divided governments !

Indian women alone make 7.5 % of the whole World’s population ! World’s second largest growing economy is unable to cope up to the equality standards that must be provided or approved for a women. Technology is able to reach the corners yet unable to solve the deeply rooted problems arising from the harsh social conditions of life.

Impact measurement is a very important and ignored factor. The basic piece of awareness that we all must have is about the fundamental rights of a women. Then we can measure how many of us are using the fundamental rights for their personal benefit and country’s social and economic benefit.

Is the availability of increasing techonolgy decreasing the social intelligence of personal liberation ?

Every place has an objective cause of certain social problems pertaining over there. The solutions must be integrated after understanding each problem differently. Generalising the solutions in such a diverse and multidimensionally populated society will not solve but infact create problems like urbanization which might sediment the turn out of real empowerment to very generic.

Our acceptance to change is the foremost science behind the flashing success of women empowerment. Reflecting learnings from one time to the present to create a life which suits the common interest of any family cannot transpire above the rapidly increasing need for us to act socially. EACH OF US !

Written By Sahithi Divi ( http://www.impactscientist.com )

Statitics : if any ( https://www.weforum.org )

Participate In your Nation’s Outcry

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Written by Sahithi Divi

This Is Where We Shall Start…!

All we have to do today is, to allow eachother, independent of gender bias to unleash their complete potential for the full benefit of our nation. By ignoring the social barriers faced by the opposite gender, we are objectively holding back our country from taking a leap that can bring us back all the years we ever lost to history. Only individuals can bring the dreams of this nation come true.

Are we waiting for a revolution to take place without participating ?

We are getting suppressed in the mirages of aspirational dreams. Here we are ,  choking our country from performing its capability.

How can we wait longer ?

Gender Equality cannot be resolved by our government, because there are scarecely any women in the policy making. Think about the real life immediate leadership centres you come across ; like home, school, workplace, communities etc.

Act, Advocate and Allign with your opposite gender to support each other like a community. That is what will make gender equality heal us ‘together’ as a nation one day.

That is where we shall start, at HOME.

Written by Sahithi Divi ( Source: http://www.impactscientist.com )

Why Is India Held Back ?

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Gender Equality is an insulated topic admist the false moral regulations. Indian constitution provides equal rights to men and women whereas the differences are unmeasurable. The economic health of our country is divided between men, women and neutral genders. Even in today’s context, the conditional differences are wiping out the fundamental rights of the person by blocking it with gender stereotyping breaking out their original potential to generate financial independence through employement or self employed sources.

” BUT “

Whether it be a family, school, government or any institution; the efficiency of functionality will be deeply effected due to the discriminative pullbacks consisting of gender bias. Business solutions cannot free the mental stigma that has been induced by generations worth of embedded preachings which classify roles and deliverables based on gender. Limitations created by the common belief backed by majority is a comfirmed as a backlog for a healthy ecosystem. Talking about India’s diversity of resources where are we in providing those resources to our women equally ?

Here isthe thing, poviding resources does not mean a special status. It means not occupying someone else’s freedom of availing their fundamental right to health, education, employement, marital implications, sexual descisions, childbirth and many pre formed templates into which objective genders are categorised into.

The change has to begin from within us, to be able to believe the statistics which say that India can add upto $770 billion—more than 18%—to its GDP by 2025, simply by giving equal opportunities to women, according to an April 23 report by the McKinsey Global Institute.

Written By Sahithi Divi (source : http://www.impactscientist.com ) ( stat source : weforum.org)

Do You Have A Role In Equalizing Economy ?

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Written by Sahithi Divi ( Intro)

While the end beneficiary of gender inequality could be either of the gender’s situationally; although women are the most fabricated in stigma. The whole other perspective of looking at gender inequality is analysing the economical areas of the country which are depleting due to ground level stereotyping. The few major economic drivers of our country are the following:

  • AgriculturE
  • Policy Making
  • Business ownership
  • Homemakers
  • RURAL ECONOMIC DRIVERS
  • Sports
  • Corporate 
  • Cultural
  • Research and Development
  • Foundational skill building

Independent of the sector, gender has crept into the root cause of driving imbalance. Our country is a mega diverse economy where gender is percieved in numerous ways. Gender inequality can cause a slump in GDP ? Women equal participation ? Categorising house hold ? Placing the priorities under social timelines is a challenging descision making scenario. If you are wondering that gender equality is not your area of action; probably we need to restructure every field and resource for equal distribution to gauge the power of balanced sex ratios.

I aim to explain the undervalued strength which lies in gender inequality that is contemplating on toxic levels with the existing opportunities. I hope this article does reflect that your role does exist in playing the gender equalizer.

Written by Sahithi Divi (source : http://www.impactscientist.com)

Can You Answer To This Young Boy’s Letter ?

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In Feb 2017, I set out on a trip to Sri Lanka to find my answers. After an intense one year of  Masters in Social Entrepreneurship, it was emotionally overwhelming for me to picture my purpose, burning with a restless soul I wanted to find my place in the world. To explore what my heart connects with? way of giving back? the cause that I can take responsibility of and make it the reason for my existence. 


UNDP – AIESEC facilitated voluntouring, training, travelling and hopping around Sri Lanka to schools, churches and village centres. I chose sustainable development goal 5 to teach the locals and create awareness about gender bias related affects ; if possible convince them to break out of the social stigma they are told to live with.  It’s true, that by giving back to the community, things begin to settle down for an other start of what I call my independent introduction to social action !

The boy wrote,” If a girl is in trouble and if I am the only boy trying to help her everyone will think in a different way and society makes up stories, what do you have to do ?”

Sri Lanka is a long long story for a single shot. Hence, I breakdown down my moments of Impact and share about my uniquely special expiriences.  Here is one such story from Sri Lanka of a boy who wrote a letter to me after I gave the session on Gender Equality at school, for the 6 th grade. He was shy to speak out. Yes, even strong boys can be shy to speak up. I call him strong because of what he wrote in the letter. Below attached is the image of the letter from the boy.


What did you feel after reading his letter ? That it is a common teenage ritual which I am exageratting? Instead, lets look at the other side of the most common.

  • The young boy took the initiative to write down his problem. He cares, thus, he is strong.
  • He is feeling scared of being supportive to his female friend.
  • At such a young age he is worried about society making up stories. Who is the society? What are we ignoring while providing education? Peer pressure is unavoidable, but societal pressure for a kid ?
  • He is thinking about his friend’s trouble, dealing with his reputation, confused about right and wrong, holding back to speak up because he knows he might be isolated further and still able to balance himself. 
  • He did not stop helping his friend. He is perseverant and is ready to think about a sustainable solution.
  • I answered him to do the right thing confidently and share with trusted elders about the situation in detail without being scared like how he came up to me.

Society means nobody if we don’t account ourselves into it. Children are continuously learning from surroundings. His letter showed me how it feels to reach your first milestone in life. But there are millions of children confused in the context of contaminating gender inequality.

Hope his letter gives you something valueble too that inspires you to act.

Sahithi Divi
Click on the above video to watch my journey to self discovery

Written by Sahithi Divi ( source : http://www.impactscientist.com)( Feautured image of boy : pexels.com)

What Is Your Responsibilty Towards Gender Equality ?

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Written by Sahithi Divi

Gender is independent of an individual’s sex, it is an evolving choice and  personal conception of how one wants to live their life. Gender based education is very important at a young age for self discovery. Here we do not discuss the type of genders, instead we first learn to embrace the diversity of gender for a gentle ride for all. 


Many of us around us are quietly taking on the burden of making  personal choices about appearance, lifestyle, professional path and intimate universe. Gender is how a person chooses to live their life. There is a lot of imbalance in developing societies, the imbalance that shuts down risk taking abilities of a person based on the objectively formed gender biases. 

Not only Education and awareness but also a community that embraces the differences between people independent of gender is essential. 

What can you do ? 

LOVE ALL
  • Promoting an inclusive society for co existence (Not feminism and gender diversity alone) 
  • Talk to your friends and allow them to share ( Hear to indifferent unharmful personal perspectives with respect) 
  • Create awareness about gender diversity to normalise your surrounding about it ( Fearlessly speak up to the abnormal reactions) 
  • Destigmatize the  decision making process at least for the immediate person you are dealing with. ( Give your hand to those who need it to cross societal barriers) 
  • Question the stereotypes about gender stigma around you ( If you feel something is not right, then question)

In the journey of life everyone goes through their own battles, but gender is one fight that we can resolve better together. 

Written By Sahithi Divi ( http://www.impactscientist.com )