HYDERABAD: Hyderabad is considered a global city poised to grow in leaps and bounds in the new decade. Yet, the city still does not boast of women-only spaces such as parks or shopping spaces. “Such initiatives will set the tone right for the future. Hyderabad must start using innovative design to fix gender inequalities” says Sahiti Divi, a young US-returned Hyderabadi, who has recently opened a dialogue about such issues.
A gender equality enthusiast who has earlier led the partnerships vertical for a global social startup, Sahithi has done her Masters in Social Entrepreneurship and Executive Education in sustainable business strategies and field study with UNDP in Sri Lanka. “My passion is to eradicate gender inequality to create a change at every level of the pyramid for fostering economic growth.
Through dialogue, I hope to change the mindset of people in the way they perceive women and equality in this country. That is what Impactscientist, my enterprise which started in August 2019, is all about,” she adds. How does design help to address gender? “I am a certified Design Thinking Practitioner. I am currently working on building my own course for delivering to the millennial women about their role in the Indian economy and sources of self-empowerment. Design thinking is a concept of management where business solutions are extracted from human solutions. The city hosted the Hyderabad Design Week recently.
The government created groups to understand the problems of the city and come back with solutions. This concept is called design thinking. I have studied design thinking in my Masters, a concept used in Blue Chip companies. We need to use these in our life and we can see how it impacts women and the country,” she adds. This DPS and Vignan College alumnus who lives in Punjagutta has recently conducted a workshop at SRKR Engineering College which has a three-hour module for the students.
“I will soon be sending a proposal to the Telangana government on ideating women-only concerts, women-only trips, parks, cook-out sessions and other spaces where they can freely walk and do their thing. This will help more women to come out to understand and appreciate the city, making them feel inclusive. This, in turn, gives them confidence and exposure to the city, leading to a change in the mindset of people. This will also let the men understand that women need their spaces and sensitise them towards the urgent need for gender equality,” Sahiti says. She has recently proposed the idea of a gender park to a top legislator in Andhra Pradesh and she believes that once the idea is successful, it can be replicated in Hyderabad too.
Design Thinking Decoded
About 15 years ago, detergent bottles were sold as five-litre bottles. Because of its size, an average household needed about three such bottles leading to more usage of plastic to make that, more time to manufacture it and more space to transport and stock it. When design thinkers stepped in, they made converted detergent as a concentrate. This meant that users could just a lid full of it, dilute it at their end and use it for longer. This meant fewer trucks to transport it and lesser shelf space. We need to adopt such innovative thinking for bus stations, design of seats in trains and public transport, in the way bikes are parked etc. Using this while designing gender-specific things makes life easy and brings in equality