Mysuru: Women’s issues dominated Day-2 of the 83rd Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana at Maharaja’s College Grounds. At the morning session today, speaker after speaker spoke on various issues facing women, with a packed audience listening to them with rapt attention.

Professor from Mangalore University Dr. Sabhia Bhoomi Gowda speaking on “Exploitation of women under various garbs,” said, “Women today are facing various challenges. If a lonely woman is walking on the road, everyone looks at her with suspicion, giving her a tag that she is a sorcerer, a child-lifter or even a prostitute. They then tie her up to a pole and beat her up. However, people who perpetrate this crime go scot-free.”

In these days where there is a focus on building toilets for women in rural areas, it is sad to see that still many villages do not have the facility and according to a UNESCO report, the maximum sexual harassment of women occur when they go out in the open fields to ease themselves, she said.

Referring to acid attack victim Hasina, she said that a man who had come to meet the family had told them as to why they were wasting so much of money on her knowing she could not regain her looks. Instead, he advised them to go for mercy killing. “This is the general mindset of a warped society,” she said expressing her regret and added, “The atrocities on women especially in north India is continuing unabated  and this is influencing other parts of the country.”

Dr. Lolakshi of Kuvempu Institute of Kannada Studies, speaking on the topic “Contemporary Cultural Politics,” reflected on the way a woman dresses also becomes  an  issue and how she is forced to follow dress codes.

“For instance, if a woman has to enter a temple, then she has to follow a strict dress code and if she is seen wearing leggings, then men leer at her.”

She also raised the issue of how when a Dalit woman cooks mid-day meals, schoolchildren belonging to other castes in the villages refuse to eat. “Woman in our society is treated as a mother. But the same woman, just because she belongs to a different caste, is boycotted forgetting that she is also a mother,” she regretted.

Journalist Dr. Vijaya, presiding over the meet, called upon women not to feel that she is weak and dependent. “Woman has to break the shackles imposed on her by a male-dominated society. She has to change her mindset and look within to fight battles,” she said.

Kannada Sahitya Sammelana President Dr. Manu Baligar replying to a question posed by the women regarding resolutions passed at the Sammelanas and its effect, said, “It is not correct to say that resolutions are ignored by the government. In fact 60 per cent of the resolutions passed during the Raichur Sammelana have been fulfilled and this time too, it will be done.”

Litterateur Dr. M.S. Asha Devi also spoke. Dr. Geetha Vasantha welcomed, Mangala Srishaila Metagudda proposed a vote of thanks.  P.H. Ratnakumari and Naveen Rai compered. Sahitya Sammelana President Prof. Chandrashekar Patil, Prof. Hampana, Prof. Kamala Hampana and others were present.