Urban Goddesses to spread message of empowerment

Nagpur: Utilising the ongoing Navratri festival to make a point, Rising Infinitely for Social Empowerment (RISE), an NGO that works in the sphere of women empowerment and personal hygiene, has come up with a novel way of spreading its message. Under their new campaign 'Urban Goddesses' they have selected nine women who have made a mark in their respective sphere of work.

RISE has represented them as goddesses Laxmi, Saraswati, Sita, Ganga and others to highlight their strength and has recorded their video messages that will be used to build confidence among the less privileged women. "We worship a goddess as Shakti during these nine days but fail to acknowledge this strength in the women around us," says Gargi Vairagare, founder president of RISE. "We have identified nine such women who have excelled in spheres like finance, education, as single mothers, fighting gender bias, sexual harassment and injustice and have left a mark to make this point," she says.

The organization works to create awareness about menstruation and has set up sanitary napkin vending machines and incinerators in schools and slum areas too. "Menstruation is a very crucial female characteristic that defines the reproductive age of women. It occupies an integral space in the cycle of a child becoming a woman and then a mother," says Vairagare. "During an interaction at Manavta High School a Class VIII girl asked us why they can't visit a temple during menstruation and that gave us the idea of connecting divinity with our project," says Surbhi Nayyar, who has designed this campaign.

Ritu Khurana, who heads a travel and transport business and is portrayed as Shakti, feels the campaign will give courage to women to speak up for themselves. "In spite of being educated, there are certain subjects over which girls and women still get tongue tied. It is important that every girl should be able to speak out her doubts over matters that relate to her body and this campaign can help achieve that."

Representing Saraswati, the goddess of learning, Mona Popli, who is studying to be a chartered accountant, feels, "Education is our ticket to a brighter future. Tomorrow will belong to all the younger modern goddesses if we prepare them for it today. Education is the most powerful tool to create awareness and eliminate stigmas around menstruation and other issues too."

These messages will help provide encouragement to young girls and women as all the nine members selected for this campaign have achieved success on their own merit and talent, Vairagare says.