“Yatra Nariyastu Pujyante Ramante Tatra Devta” the famous quote indicates where a woman is worshipped like a devi (Goddess), God resides there, while Gujarat is the place where women is been truly respected moreover a number of initiatives have been taken to empower women and fight against the most burning problem in India female foeticide as the words of Shri Narendra Modi go “The act of female foeticide should not be there, instead birth of a girl child should become a matter of pride for the family”

With Beti – Bachao and several other initiatives taken by Shri Narendra Modi, Gujarat has come a long way ahead and has topped among the safest places to work. Besides the recent news on Child sex ratio taking a turn for better proves that Gujarat is not only making safe environment to work but also leads in number of births per thousand boys.  Large numbers of BPOs are coming to Gujarat as it’s a women friendly state where the security and safety of women is duly taken care. While there are several states where crimes like female foeticide and rapes are a matter of great concern moreover the ratios prove it all.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had started the ‘Beti Bachao’ campaign around a decade before. Year after year, Modi has tried to appeal to diverse sections of Gujarat to understand and value the importance of a girl-child in ways unique to such sections, besides recently Gujarat Health Ministry opened a website http://www.betivadhaao.com in a bid to create online facility to receive complains on Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994 in a two-day work shop on PC and PNDT act related issues, organized by Health department of state government.

Malnutrition problems can be solved but for that, that little fairy should be first allowed to enter this world. It’s a depressing matter that there are certain corners in the nation where the heinous crime of killing daughters even before they are born is been executed to quote a few, a recent news revealed Haryana’s Yamuna Nagar area, in Delhi suburb, a woman doctor has been arrested after she was allegedly caught aborting a girl child during a raid conducted by health department officials. Yet one more news mentions, a Jalgaon-based doctor, charged of conducting illegal sex determination tests being recommended by a one of the power products trader.

Moreover in the recent times when women in India have shouldered the responsibilities of men, their safety at work place is a matter of significant importance, considering the same Gujarat has proved itself as few of the safest places to work, according to a recent survey the list of safest cities included Vadodara in Gujarat which ranked second safest place to work followed by Shimla, this survey was done in 37 cities across the country and comprised 6,167 respondents. Vadodara was among the best cities that had low crime rates and no terror attacks.

Furthermore a senior manager (services) of a BPO based at Gandhinagar attributed the state (Gujarat) a lot safer for women compared to other metros elaborating the same he said: “One of the reasons for the phenomenal jump in the BPO industry in Gujarat is that the state has an image of providing a safe working environment. With BPO companies recruiting more women, they prefer safer cities.” Gujarat has added 20 new BPO companies in the past few years.

The BPO centres have a lot of night shifts as most of these cater to clients in the US. Day time in the US means night here. Most companies prefer to employ women to handle their BPO activities as clients prefer to speak to women as they can understand the problems of clients better.

While the Women’s Cell-CID (crime) of Gujarat police has launched a special campaign, named ‘Savcheti Maj Suraksha’, to spread awareness about crimes against women and sexual harassment faced by the fair sex, a film has been produced that instructs educational institutions and even girls and adult women on what they can do to check sexual harassment, particularly at educational institutions.

On the flip side there are certain cities that have been treating them as an unfair sex. The Congress ruled Delhi has become a RAPE CAPITAL of India, According to this report published by National Crime Records Bureau, Among 35 cities, Delhi (3,886) has accounted for 16.0% of total crimes followed by Hyderabad (1,964) (8.1%). The crime rate was significantly higher in Vijayawada, Jaipur, Faridabad, Lucknow, Vishakhapatnam and Agra at 113.7, 50.9, 47.0, 46.4, 45.6 and 45.3 respectively as compared to average of mega cities at 22.6.

Delhi city has accounted for 23.0% of Rape cases, 37.7% of Kidnapping & Abduction cases, 14.6% of Dowry Deaths and 16.5% of Molestation cases among 35 cities. Hyderabad has reported 12.2% of cases of Cruelty by Husband and Relatives. Vijayawada has reported 16.0% of cases of Eve-teasing. Kolkata city has reported 3 out of 7 cases reported under Importation of Girls.

Chastity of women once snatched can never be returned back unlike other valuables. It’s a matter of pride for the Modi government that Gujarat has created new benchmarks on the safety fronts.