PUNE // Trupti Desai seems like an unlikely crusader, as she sits, calm and collected, in the office attached to her home.
But Ms Desai, 32, a social activist, has been at the forefront of a series of high profile and successful campaigns to secure access for women to religious sites they have been excluded from in India – a role that has seen her receive death threats and become the victim of violent attacks.
Women entered the inner sanctum of the historic Haji Ali mosque and tomb in Mumbai for the first time in five years in November after a campaign in which Ms Desai played a critical role led to a court order to lift a ban on their presence.
“I noticed from a young age that there was discrimination between boys and girls and how men always want to control girls in Indian society and I didn’t feel this was acceptable,” says Ms Desai, who lives in the city of Pune, a few hours by road from Mumbai. “The focus is always to get women married and they’re considered a second grade citizen in society.”
The activist cuts a tomboyish figure, with her short hair, smart brown Nehru jacket and maroon coloured churidar leggings. The scent of incense wafts through her office, which is decorated with ornaments depicting the Hindu god Ganesha and photos of Ms Desai.
In 2010, Ms Desai founded her activist organisation, the Bhumata Brigade, with the aim of tackling women’s rights issues and corruption. The organisation now has 7,000 members.
Her activism has created a huge stir and filming on a biopic about her is scheduled to start later this month.
“I was always interested in social work and when I was at school and college, I used to take part in protests,” says Ms Desai who is now married and has a seven-year-old son.
Ms Desai heard in 2015 that women were banned from worshipping at the holy shrine of the Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra state, and that if a female touched the idol, it would have to be bathed in milk to cleanse it because women were considered “impure”.
“I was really affected by this,” she says. “I called a meeting of my group and we decided to start a movement to allow women the same access as men to temples. They should have equal rights.”
In December 2015, she travelled to the temple with members of her group, intending to climb on top of the platform where the idol was situated. But she was stopped by local villagers and security guards, the temple’s trustees.
The incident grabbed the Indian media’s attention, and Ms Desai says some conservative Hindus responded by labelling her “anti-Hindu” and saying “she was not fit to be a Hindu”.
Undeterred, Ms Desai gathered 1,500 female members of the Bhumata Brigade from across Maharashtra and organised 45 buses to take them to the temple in January last year. But their efforts were again thwarted after police detained them.
In response, veteran activist Vidya Bal filed a petition in the high court, citing a 1956 law that gives women and men equal rights to enter temples in India. The court ruled in favour of the petition, saying women were legally allowed to enter the Shani Shingnapur temple. Ms Desai returned to the temple in April and was granted entry to the sanctum.
“It was a big victory and a breaking of tradition,” she says. The win inspired her to work on other cases including helping women to gain entry to the sanctum at the Haji Ali mosque.
Ms Desai had planned to try and enter the Sabarimala temple in Kerala this month but the state government said they would prevent her from entering.
Although Ms Desai says she believes things are improving for women in India, her activism has put her at great personal risk. When fighting for women’s rights at the Mahalaxmi temple in Kolhapur, protesters threw chilli powder at her eyes and beat her up. She ended up in hospital for a day.
She also says contract killers were hired to kill her when she was campaigning for access to another temple. Her car was pelted with stones by a group of attackers on motorbikes, smashing the windows and injuring the driver.
“We had a lucky escape,” she says. “Had we stopped the car, they would have killed us.”
But when asked whether she ever feels scared, Ms Desai says she “is happy to die for people’s causes rather than dying of a heart attack or a natural death”.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
How to register as a donor
1) Organ donors can register on the Hayat app, run by the Ministry of Health and Prevention
2) There are about 11,000 patients in the country in need of organ transplants
3) People must be over 21. Emiratis and residents can register.
4) The campaign uses the hashtag #donate_hope
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%3Cp%3EChris%20Jordan%20insists%20Sanchit%20Sharma%20will%20make%20an%20impact%20on%20the%20ILT20%2C%20despite%20him%20starting%20the%20campaign%20on%20Gulf%20Giants'%20bench.%3Cbr%3EThe%20young%20UAE%20seamer%20was%20an%20instant%20success%20for%20the%20side%20last%20season%2C%20and%20remained%20part%20of%20the%20XI%20as%20they%20claimed%20the%20title.%3Cbr%3EHe%20has%20yet%20to%20feature%20this%20term%20as%20the%20Giants%20have%20preferred%20Aayan%20Khan%20and%20Usman%20Khan%20as%20their%20two%20UAE%20players%20so%20far.%3Cbr%3EHowever%2C%20England%20quick%20Jordan%20is%20sure%20his%20young%20colleague%20will%20have%20a%20role%20to%20play%20at%20some%20point.%3Cbr%3E%22Me%20and%20Sanchit%20have%20a%20great%20relationship%20from%20last%20season%2C%22%20Jordan%20said.%3Cbr%3E%22Whenever%20I%20am%20working%20with%20more%20inexperienced%20guys%2C%20I%20take%20pleasure%20in%20sharing%20as%20much%20as%20possible.%3Cbr%3E%22I%20know%20what%20it%20was%20like%20when%20I%20was%20younger%20and%20learning%20off%20senior%20players.%3Cbr%3E%22Last%20season%20Sanchit%20kick-started%20our%20season%20in%20Abu%20Dhabi%20with%20a%20brilliant%20man-of-the-match%20performance.%3Cbr%3E%22Coming%20into%20this%20one%2C%20I%20have%20seen%20a%20lot%20of%20improvement.%20The%20focus%20he%20is%20showing%20will%20only%20stand%20him%20in%20good%20stead.%22%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
More on animal trafficking
Globalization and its Discontents Revisited
Joseph E. Stiglitz
W. W. Norton & Company
'The worst thing you can eat'
Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
