For men only

Why aren’t there more people like Vinta Nanda and Poojita Chowdhary? The two have got together to make a documentary on the lives of women in jobs generally considered to be “for men only”. Nanda (above) has co-produced (with TVE, a London-based production outfit) the film, titled Gender Bender, for BBC while Chowdhary (daughter of Union tourism minister Renuka Chowdhary) has directed it.

The idea behind the documentary was to show the world that there is no job that a woman cannot do, and that there is a need to move beyond gender differentiation of occupational choice, thereby making many more vocations available to women. Chowdhary says she searched the Internet, tracked down actual cases, and then set about making the film. Among the women featured in the film is a barber from Andhra Pradesh, an engine driver trained by Tata Steel in Jamshedpur, and an auto driver in Madurai.

The film will have two versions. While the shorter version is of five minutes, the longer version will stretch to 25 minutes.

Get ’em back

Did you know that nearly 7,000 girls and women are trafficked every year from Nepal to West Bengal? Did you know that on the other hand, only 19 girls of Nepalese origin have been rescued from Calcutta in 2004? These grim statistics came to light at a day-long inter-country discussion organised by the Royal Nepalese Consulate. Titled ‘Cross-border Trafficking of Girls and Women of Nepal ? Realities and Remedies’, the discussion saw guests such as Kolkata Police’s Damayanti Sen, Sanlaap’s Indrani Sinha and Maiti Nepal’s Anuradha Koirala take stock of the situation and suggest preventive measures.

Nilosree Biswas

Chinese dilemma

China is set to become the world’s largest lonely-hearts club in the coming decades, with some 23 million men of marriageable age unable to find a female partner. And the prospect of millions of men forced to go solo threatens to lead to major social and political problems for the country of 1.3 billion people, according to researchers at the University of Texas. China, like its neighbours Taiwan and South Korea, has paid the price for a rapid decline in fertility combined with a preference for male children, and therefore, rampant abortion of female babies, researchers say. It’s the same story everywhere.

New clothes

Men and women have always had different needs. And thank God for US companies like Chick-fil-A to understand that, even though it comes four years too late. The company had introduced a unisex, one-size-fits-all uniform for its employees four years ago. But it’s grown up since then. Employees will be wearing new gender-specific uniforms this fall. The uniforms will be made by sportswear firm Oobe. The new line for women will feature tops that are more tailored, optional accessories such as caps and visors, and pants that are cut with respect to gender. Also, employees will have more colour options. Let’s say, employees who wear better, work better.

Face of Chanel

You’re 33 years old, a mother of one and in this profession called homemaking. And poof! You’re also a Chanel girl! Mumbai socialite Prerna Goel has been selected by Chanel to star in a television documentary on the fashion house to commemorate 100 years of its label. Chanel has selected five women from across the world as ‘Chanel girls’. These women are some of its bigger customers, and they’re not actors or models. The other ‘girls’ come from China, Russia, Scotland and the UK. “It’s quite a prestigious thing,’’ Goel was heard saying, after a five-day shoot in Paris where she stayed at the Ritz. Lucky Prerna!

Overheard... that despite the high literacy rates in Kerala, women are not safe from domestic violence. A recent survey concluded that violence against women was on the rise in the state and about 40 per cent of the women surveyed said they were victims of violence.