Sreeja V
@Wordsmith · 2:11
Helping women reclaim public spaces in India: Madhureeta Anand, Founder, Phree for Safety & Filmmaker.
While there have been widespread discussions and deliberations on the need to make public spaces more inclusive through design breaking societal pressures of confining women at home and using public spaces purely for commute and transactional purposes, pushing for women to start using public spaces at leisure, et cetera, here in India, safety continues to be the bane for women. Repeated incidents of violence against women in public spaces has resulted in increasing fear of travel and using public spaces unaccompanied during nonrush hours
Madhureeta Anand
@MadhureetaA · 4:32
And yes, of course, the startup world is different, but learning is not hard. And the investment part, we all have instruments for investment. A lot of these are in the businesses of billionaires. And I thought to myself, well, why not my business? And so I started to invest in it. Many people told me it's a punt, and so on and so forth. Very dear friends of mine who are well healed in the business said you should raise the money first
Sreeja V
@Wordsmith · 0:42
Thank you, Madhureeta, for sharing the vision behind Free for Safety and about your journey. And it's amazing that you decided to actually go the startup way and work on finding a solution to this problem. My second question is there has been a lot of talk about women reclaiming public spaces. Now, as a filmmaker who has widely traveled in India and abroad, I would want to ask you, is this even achievable, given the ground realities here in India?
Madhureeta Anand
@MadhureetaA · 3:46
Srija the question you've asked is a relevant one. And at a societal level, I really am in agreement that we don't really consider women and their safety in public spaces as important, and therefore it is largely nonexistent. While traveling to villages and across the world as a filmmaker, and in towns and cities and other spaces both within India and outside, what the one thing that one notices is that the access for women to public spaces is always conditional
Sreeja V
@Wordsmith · 0:21
You. Thank you. Madhureeta, how are you taking free for safety to the nooks and corner of the nation? And how can we as users help you in this endeavor? Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to us here on Swell. Look forward to hearing your voice and your views and perspectives from time to time here on Swell. Thank you
Madhureeta Anand
@MadhureetaA · 4:49
Similarly, women who are of domestic help or of other such groups, the consequences are that they are blamed for these instances or they are discouraged from leaving the house altogether. So because they don't want to attract attention in a way to that unsafe incident or that feeling of being unsafe, they find a way around it and mostly keep quiet and bear those instances. We all do it