In Conversation with Karthik S Kateel
Hello, everyone. I'm your host, Anisha Rodrigues. I hope all of you have been doing well, and let's hope the weekend blues haven't drained anybody yet, because I'm here to recharge your mood with an amazing personality. Karthik s katil. He is the CEO and founder of Swaraksha for Women Trust, an NGO which has trained over 1.8 Lakh women and conducted over a thousand workshops already
You. Hello. First of all, I would like to thank Miss Anisha Rodriguez for hosting me here today. It really feels like I had started my journey yesterday, and today I am here with you. But to be frank, it all took me 24 years of martial arts experience and eight years, nine months of self defense experience to be here today. And my journey in martial arts field, that is karate, Taekwondo, moatai, judisto and JKD
Thank you so much, sir, for your response. My second question to you is, can you tell us about your twohour workshop in detail and how it helps girls?
Karate, taekwondo, it looks easy, but it's not. And the second thing is that you are using your martial arts training for women. I mean, to benefit them, to teach them self defense. It's very, very important. And I think in today's time, where crime against women is increasing day by day, we are reading in the newspapers or on social media that women are not safe even in their own homes
Ah. Good evening, Mr. Karthik. I am sameerbhatia. And I'm really, really impressed by your vast, you know, experience and your thoughts towards security and self defense, especially for women. So many congregations for that. And my question to you is, you spoke about the, you know, all things you have done and your workshops and all. So I just wanted to know how is your self defense workshop unique from other self defense workshops which are going on?
Hi. Karthik Anushi here. We all know that our parents play an important role in any of our career decisions. So I just wanted to know how your mother helped and inspired you to build your organization
So when my mom demonstrates certain techniques it will inspire the students more and more. Just because a lady can demonstrate these technique wearing a sari means why can't we do all these things and defend ourselves? So this is the inspiration what these people will get in this self defense demonstration session. We train them regarding various attacks. If somebody attacks unexpectedly, what are the techniques you can do and defend yourself and escape from there?
So thank you for this well question. And one more thing I would like to tell whenever we receive a complaint first we will ask them are you comfortable to discuss your problem with your parents? But the first thing usually these girls or a boy they usually tell is no sir, we are not comfortable with telling this to our parents so please you help us in solving the problem. But actually the reality is 90% of problems will get solved if the parents support their children
Thank you so much, sir, for outlining this entire process in great detail. The next question I would like to ask you is what inspired you to take up this field?
But what I am doing right now is a totally a unique way of self defense because majority of people have one doubt that if you want to defend yourself, you need to learn karate or any other types of martial arts. But actually in reality karate or learning any martial arts as you said, it's not an easy way because it's an achievement, because it requires lot of dedication, hard work, concentration, et cetera
That also justifies the word uniqueness here. And if you go and ask any karate trainer or a martial arts trainer that are you going to conduct a self defense workshop? They usually tell yes, we are going to conduct a self defense workshop. Before 2014, when I was a Karate martial arts practitioner, I also usually used to tell a self defense even I also can do it. You need to punch, you need to block kick
So I guess martial arts can be categorized into the different styles as far as I heard about that like karate, mondo, judo, kung fu and more and more and each style has its unique techniques, training methods, philosophies some styles focus more on striking techniques while other emphasize on the grappling and the joint locks or throws
And from 2014 till date, we were able to reach more than 1000 institution and train various students. But the main thing is this program is not sponsored by any government officials or not sponsored by any CSR. People in general supported our program. And people, some people who really wanted this program to continue, helped us. And we were able to step into this huge one lakh, 83,000 plus students
Wow, that was really inspirational. Now, my next question to you is, what are the struggles you face while running an NGO like Swaraksha for Women trust?
Yeah, hello. First of all, I would like to congratulate you for the very well analysis about various types of martial arts. But yeah, actually you have told regarding certain martial arts forms and certain benefits of martial arts form. But the problem in India especially is see, government has made karate compulsory to all the high school students. But when we had been to those government high school student, 70% to 75% of the girls, they never attend karate
And if we would have got financial support in the right time now, not only one lakh 83,000 plus, we would have reached the three lakh plus students all around Karnataka and all around India also. So we are trying. And in between the COVID Pandemic had also created some problems. Our smooth running of the trust. So hope for the best and we will keep our hopes allowed. And we need unconditional support from all of you
So please do not forget to check out Kartikas Katil official handle on Instagram Facebook. Check out his YouTube if you've heard Till here. And definitely do check out the trust as well. Now back to the interview. My question to you, sir, is how do you feel about being the recipient of six national and 16 state gold medals in Marsh? A lot
But being as a non learn in this side as a beginner, can you just guide me as a primary knowledge which I can have as a self defense which I need to learn for self defense that will help me? As self defense is not only to protect myself, it's also about helping someone else whom I see in trouble. So it would be very grateful if you guide me out the primary stage of this learning self defense, like which form I can go for
Yeah. Hello. Thank you so much for the appreciation. And it was nice to hear your experience. Also, and related to your question, see the type of martial arts if you are asking for the particular self defense our self. Defense is one in India because of the copyright and because of the uniqueness. So you can invite us to your institution to have a session for all the girls. Because if you invite us, it will reach almost all. The girls of your institution first thing
Because many girls, what they did is they have learn our techniques. Then they visited various institution, they told that you invite this particular person to organize the session. They have invited us and many girls have supported us in this regard and that is why we have reached here. So thank you for the question. Thank you
They launched the pepper spray just for the business sake, not for the real survival. Because to operate pepper spray also there are certain techniques, if you do not use the proper technique, it will revert back to you and instead of damaging the opponent, we will be damaging our own eyes. So this thing so what I strongly believe is hands and legs are only our partners to defend ourselves. And that is what we have teased
Yeah, actually it's a good memory, it's actually a great memory. But what I really like is to train to continue this Swaraksha for Women program because now I practice martial arts as a hobby for the fitness, for the flexibility and usually I do some reels regarding the martial arts just to entertain people by doing some of the extreme kicks and techniques. But Swaraksha for Women is a program which has really really made me happy because if you get six national or 16 times national it's for yourself
Thank you so much, sir, for your kind words. It means a lot to me. And I really remember this training that was conducted when I was in nine standard. It was really useful. And I think I asked you for your autograph back then when I was small. Then I think I just saw your profile on Instagram and then decided to follow you. And since then, I want our listeners to know that I've conducted an interview with Kartikas Katil on YouTube
vani singhal
@vaanisinghal · 0:18
As you mentioned, that your journey has been through many years ups and downs and today you are very successful. So, like, what ups and downs did you face during your journey and how did you tackle them? Like, what skills, like, what social values did you enshrined in them to tackle your ups and downs?
Because we have already proved that these techniques have been useful to a number of girls and alone we could train one lakh 83,000 girls but with the support of each and every one we could reach large number of women especially throughout India. And we are getting lots of contacts from various parts of India. But the only hurdle we are facing here is they cannot take care of our complete remuneration and even we are not in a position to invest to reach corners of India
Hello. Thank you so much for the wonderful question. So, how to deal with ups and downs? And what are the ups and downs that I have faced in a particular field? But to mention that you have told me I am successful now, but a simple correction there, I'm not yet successful. I am just in the first step of success right now, because a long, long way to go
He deserves your support and I'll be putting the links for the trust so that you can go and donate. The least you can do is subscribe to his YouTube channel and follow him on Instagram. So I'll be adding both those links and even his own YouTube link so that you'll be updated about how to overcome these problems regarding protecting yourself in self defense, cybercrime, ethical hacking, et cetera
Thank you. Thank you so much, Ms. Anisha Rodriguez, for the wonderful questions and for giving me this valuable opportunity to be with you in this interview. And I would like to thank each and everyone who took their time to be here to listen to me and give their valuable feedback also. So thank you so much. And last but not least, I would like to request everyone to support Miss Anisha because rarely we can find some of the personalities like this who wants to support others
Priyanka
@pri_yanka04 · 0:34
Hello, Karthik. First of all, I admire your work and duly inspired by you. It is known to all that behind every successful person, there is a person who always stands behind them and plays a very important role in their life. So my question to you is who is that one person in your life who inspire you the most throughout your journey, motivate you to do your best, is always there with your ups and downs and stays with you in every situation till the end
How has your experience been while you helped empower so many 1.8 lakh women into learning self defense and protecting themselves? What has your experience been? I would really like to know that, especially from the male perspective, because as I mentioned, we always see women fighting for their own rights, but I have seen less men actually be in this field and I really get happy whenever I see some doing this. So I'd like to know your experiences from that perspective. Thank you
I'll keep the maximum amount of my salary towards this work because it is going to help so many women in the society and that motivated me to continue. And my mom, obviously, 24 hours. Wherever I go, she is. With me and during the demonstration also she is accompanying me to demonstrate. And we don't take a group of people for demonstration purpose because it might create some nuisance and even girls won't be so much comfortable to discuss. Their problems
What they usually think is if we should be a feminist, we should blame men. No, this is not right because this is considered as a fake feminism. I have come across lot of people, especially women who have gathered some groups there and their main intention is not to help women, their intention is to blame men. So this rise in fake feminism has already made people to get a wrong idea about feminism also
Yeah continuing the answer. So according to me, according to my experiences whenever we started this program that is in 2014, we used to contact various principals regarding our workshop and we used to ask them please give us an opportunity so that we can train your students. But you might be surprised to know that 70% of men principals have supported us. You, you come, our students require this et cetera. But it makes me really sad to say only 30% of women principals have entertained this program
So in case if somebody comes with a problem first of all I will listen to their problem. Then I'll contact the person who is considered as criminal according to them so that I can hear the story from his side also. And majority of the times what will happen when you hear both the stories then only you can conclude it that who is a criminal and who is a victim there. Because recently I got one complaint before two months
What you have to do is if you don't know something, you can consult your parents, you can consult your professors, your favorite teachers or if not anyone, you can contact me also in my Instagram profile to verify whether the link sent to you or message sent to you is genuine or it's fake. So that is the first thing what you can do. Because why I'm telling this is in this particular adolescent age many people fall into trouble
The boy is her senior at some the boy usually calls her regularly and he usually invites her to coffee shop, juice shop, et cetera. But this girl avoids him. I have that problem, this problem I am busy, et cetera, et cetera. She used to give number of reasons but after one month also it's not easy to avoid him each and every day. So she witnessed our program, she contacted me, I gave a simple trick, she went and executed the trick
Pankaj S
@soundpills · 0:41
You. Thank you so much for inviting, without which I wouldn't have known such a great initiative, which is usually predominant on other social media sites like YouTube. But I'm so happy to see this being available on Swell as well. So I wish this team the best and hope the girls join in this initiative and learn to defend themselves and sometimes, when the opportunity arises, even others around them. Kudos
Hello, sir. First of all, thank you so much for your valuable words of appreciation. It really means a lot to me. And thank you so much for being here and listening to my interviews talks. Be much obliged if you visit our website. I'll be providing the details here, sir. Thank you, sir, for your unconditional support
Renu Mangtani
@Rainu · 0:25
Hello, Karthik sir, this is Renu here. Thank you so much for sharing inspiring journey with us. So my question to you is that can you please share with us two or three tips where, like, employees working in corporates are harassed physically or mentally by their bosses or senior personalities in their cabins? Yes. Thank you know
For example, if he invites you many a times what these criminals do is they invite you I need to talk to you regarding a project. Please come to that place, nobody will be there. It would be helpful for me immediately what you do is don't go alone, take your colleague with you automatically. When you take your colleague and when he feels that you are not approachable easily, he might do two to three, four or five attempts to approach you