Self-defence training boosts Valley women’s confidence
There were times when Sarita Magar, a waitress working in a dohari restaurant in Dhapasi, wished she could give costumers misbehaving with her a good smack.
There were times when Sarita Magar, a waitress working in a dohari restaurant in Dhapasi, wished she could give costumers misbehaving with her a good smack.
However, Magar, who had no knowledge about any kind of martial art to defend herself and wanted not to lose her job, would silently suffer sexual attacks.
“I feel empowered and I no longer suffer silently. If a costumer takes me for granted that I come free with the food, he will definitely regret for it,” said Magar with a smile on her face. She also does not need an escort to drop her home after night shifts anymore.
The 20 year old acquired self confidence after undergoing a self-defence course designed for women.
The training which includes psychological conditioning, physical training, regimented techniques, drills and simulations to enable women to give an effective response to perpetrators and safeguard themselves should they find themselves being victims of both physical and sexual abuse was provided by Paritran Risk Management Consultancy & Training Institute Pvt Ltd.
“Fight back is a holistic, powerful and sensitively designed intervention for women of all age groups, physical conditions and aims to address the skill deficit to counter sexual harassment, physical assaults and violent sexual crimes. It up-skills, empowers and enables women to avert, mitigate, confront or escape from the perpetrators,” said Vikrant Raj Pandey, director of Paritran.
According to Srijana Pun, president of the Women for Women, an organisation working for the rights of women in informal sector, the training has become a huge success for women and the demand for it has soared up.
“The self defence class was unique where we weren’t just taught to kick and punch at predators but also how to deal with silent sexual advances and how best to use our body parts in different kinds of encounters,” said Rita Pradhan, another trainee.
Pradhan added that the new-found confidence helped her kick an unguarded customer trying to pull her too close to him.
According to the government’s latest data, there are around 50,000 women working in the entertainment sector and sexual abuse tops the charts of problems faced by these women.
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