The reporter had gone to cover an event to honour the Chief Minister but received a rude shock when she was told she couldn’t sit in the front row because she is a woman
Forget the glass ceiling, it looks like women in Mumbai can’t even break through to the front row, as a female journalist discovered to her dismay yesterday when she went to cover an event where the Chief Minister was to be felicitated.
TV reporter Rashmi Puranik had gone to cover the event where CM Devendra Fadnavis was felicitated, but was told she couldn’t sit in the first three rows since she is a woman. Pics/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
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Even though the front row had been reserved for reporters, the scribe was reportedly asked to get up and go behind twice. On Thursday, Rashmi Puranik, a journalist with ABP Mazha channel, went to cover a felicitation programme being hosted by the Shree Santacruz Jain Tapagachha Sangh to thank CM Devendra Fadnavis for the beef ban.
CM Devendra Fadnavis
When she reached the venue Yogi sabhagruh, next to the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan temple by Dadar station (East) she headed towards the seats in the front row, never dreaming this would subject her to gender discrimination. The front row had been reserved for journalists, but when she tried sitting there, she was stopped and asked to go to the seats at the back.
Puranik complained to the BJP Mumbai president, Ashish Shelar, who spoke to the organisers and ensured she got a seat in front. However, after some time, two more people from the Jain sangh approached her and told her that their culture didn’t permit her a woman to sit in the first three rows.
They explained that even women from their own community were being asked to sit behind, but this argument did not sit well with Puranik, who said she felt deeply insulted by the incident. It appears that this is not the first time this has happened either.
Even the city’s Mayor was not spared disgrace in a 2011 event that was jointly organised by the BMC and the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Temple trust incidentally, the same trust that runs Yogi Sabhagruh. As per reports, a spiritual guru who was seated onstage had insisted that no women be seated closer than 35 feet from him.
The then Mayor Shraddha Jadhav was also not seated on the dias. When contacted, Jadhav said, “What I remember is that I was not onstage; only guruji and Uddhavji (Thackeray) were on the stage.”
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