Girl Up Neev

Every now and then, we come across the instances of women being a part of abusive relationships. Factors like financial dependence on the abuser, hesitation and fear to leave, lack of self- esteem, love for the children, etc stops a woman from severing the ties with the abuser and one of the outcomes of this predicament is Battered Woman Syndrome. Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS) has been created as a psychological tool for understanding the mental condition of battered women who kill their batterers. It is basically a pattern of symptoms and signs displayed by a woman who has been a subject to persistent suffering, psychological, sexual or physical, owing to intimate partner violence by the male partner. It is sometimes also referred to as battered wife syndrome. Mainly, there are four stages through which the women who develop this condition generally go through. These include: denial about the fact that she has been subjected to abuse; guilty feeling that she is the culprit of the ab...

“ Cinema is a weapon. For the reason, it must be fought for.”  -Augusto Boal Cinema has not only been a source of entertainment but also a gateway to the future, a means to understand the past and a mirror reflecting our present. It is a unique weapon which has helped the humankind to get past great wars. But today, rather than being a weapon of choice, it has instead become a means of war. Despite movies being the largest source of entertainment in India, there is a single commonality in every movie released - female characters are mere an accessory in the plot rather than being an integral part of the story. Earlier, mythological stories such used to be a tool of inspiration for writers and hence male and female characters were presented as the same. This is not the situation today and writers need to move on from misogynistic male and helpless female representation. Another reason is the lack of female writers in the industry which leads to portrayal of female characters from ma...

  As a profession which outwardly focuses on calling out women in many of the societies, prostitution does fulfill the needs and desires of many but ruins the basic right of dignity for others. It has been called as the ‘exchange of sexual pleasures for financial benefits’ imposing several causes that lead ‘n’ number of women to indulge in its practice. These include: Poverty, lack of sex education, kidnapping and abduction, trafficking, alcohol abuse, incest rapes and other religious, social and biological factors. Prostitution is often also called as ‘forced sex work’ since sex workers are willingly indulged in this profession to make up money but the prostitutes are mostly coerced to engage in sexual activity by a third person. Research describes that the number of women who choose prostitution from a position of safety, equality and genuine alternatives is minimal. Hence, a majority of women fall culprit to trafficking. The stigmatized work isn’t even legal in most of the count...

  When I first heard about the meaning of cyberbullying as a kid, I could only understand a tiny aspect of it, that is, cyberbullying is bullying with the use of digital mediums. When I grew up, I truly understood what it meant. It may take place on social media, gaming platforms and online messaging platforms. Cyberbullying is unfortunately one of the downsides of using the internet. The internet has given people the power to spread hurtful messages and lies about anyone without thinking about the repercussions it may cause to the person suffering through it. Cyberbullying causes excruciating consequences to those who have to suffer from this inhuman act. It is done by spreading false information about a person; sending threats as messages; impersonating someone and sending unpleasant messages to others on their behalf. Very recently, since there is a rise in social media consumption, I see people commenting their unsolicited opinions on those who have a public profile, in a rude ...

True independence lies within economic independence, to not have to depend on someone for survival, to be your own master. And within the struggle of gender equality lies this problem, the problem of the gender pay gap, where this patriarchal society can’t recognize women for their skill and intelligence but keep falling on the archaic gender roles. While there is also a lack of representation in the economy for women, with the labor force participation rate being only 10.83% as compared to 71.15% for men, even for those who can participate face considerable gaps, with the wage gap being 34% for full-time employees and wage workers, the wage being Rs 3842 for men while only Rs 1815 for women. While this holds true throughout the planet, it is considerably worse in India, which ranks 112 in the gender gap index. One obvious reason that comes to mind is cultural barriers, which is sadly one of the primary forces behind the problems Among the lower classes, the family can’t afford to get ...

One must always count our blessings as some of us are not even equipped with basic amenities like shelter and clothing. Even though we don’t want our old clothes anymore, it’s almost guaranteed that someone else does. There are disaster victims, underprivileged people, and children in need of clothing, and your donations can help. When you throw away your clothes, they have no chance of reaching people who need them the most. With keeping this idea in mind, we at Girl Up Neev collaborated with Rotaract Club of NMIMS’ SOC for ‘ Dhaagein ’- a clothes distribution drive . The event aimed to collect clothes and other kind donations from the privileged class to distribute them to those in need. Keeping in mind the current situation and the availability of members in different cities, the club planned to focus on 5 cities i.e., Mumbai, Delhi, Guwahati, Pune, and Nagpur. Apart from these cities, donations and distributions were made on small scale in other cities as well like Bangalore ...

An excerpt on female foeticide in India   Female foeticide is the selective abortion or elimination of the female child, with or without the consent of the mother, after the detection of the child’s gender through a series of medical tests. This is usually done under familial pressure from the husband or the in-laws or sometimes, even the woman’s parents. In India the ratio of boys to girls is 924:1000. That is, for every 1000 men, there are only 924 women. This statistic was calculated in 2019 and over time there has been a decline in boy to girl ratio in India. The girls have not vanished overnight. Decades of sex determination tests and female foeticide that has acquired genocidal proportions are finally catching up with the states in India. The frequency of female foeticide in India is assumed to be an estimation derived from its high birth sex ration, that is the ratio of boys to girls at birth. According to recent UN reports, “Every day around 7000 girls are killed...