"Authorities are working hard to make it a success" - ARE THEY?

New Delhi, November 3: On a Monday afternoon, the empty stalls of Mahila Haat situated on the Asaf Ali Road, an ambitious project of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) to empower women providing them with cheap and centrally located retail spaces, raise several questions.

The project conceived by the erstwhile MCD in 2009, became fully functional in 2012 with an inflated budget of Rs. 5 crore, with a dual objective of empowering women while providing a unique shopping experience in Old Delhi.

"It has not been much of a success as a project itself, but it is a success in the sense that women get an opportunity to come out of their homes and experience a business environment. They not only create the products but also get the courage to make links with other markets and businesses for a better living. It brings the women to the fore, outside the boundaries of their homes," said Basanti, a helper serving here since a year and a half.

The campus looked attractive and the gardens were well retained. "Mira Agrawal, NDMC Mayor inspected the haat last Friday but gave no further instructions," informed Rajkumari, the committee worker who is the in charge of the Mahila Haat.

The doors of Mahila Haat remained closed on Saturday, despite a vivid banner hung at the gates claiming, "Open all seven days, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m." Ajay, of the Delhi Civil Defence, talking behind the closed doors on Saturday said -- "the scene was very different in winters last year. This has not been faring well since the past summer." The receding number of allotted stalls on a chart in the office of the complex echoed the same story. The in charge told that 'the allotments were pending with the higher officials' -- the mahila haat suffering from red-tapism, still awaits the red carpet.

A series of closed storerooms, stalls in the scorching sun and huge boxes to keep the sellable products (due to faulty stall basements which give way to water, damaging the products) presented a pitiable picture of a pretty place.)

The empowerment fizzled as Basanti remarked that 'the sellers who currently have stalls are forced to get a permanent stall as it provides a cheap place for business in the heart of Delhi. This has hampered the seriousness which is expected out of the sellers in this market, to bring their hand-made products and make profit with them while providing unique women- friendly environment to sell as well as shop. The men are still in-control of the situation, not from the front but surely as the facade of women empowerment is still engaging the general public. On the visitors' end, the rule of a male entering only if accompanied by family, has already been relaxed.

The workers have an easy life here, as there is no work at all for them, but they wish for the place to become more vibrant in the coming days as the MCD cultural fair will commence here from seventh november and invite both sellers and visitors. In a situation where the rents have been doubled from rupees 600 per day to 1200 per day for the smallest stall and respectively for the bigger stalls along with the lack of publicity, if this remains a wishful thinking or as they say 'the authorities are working hard to make it a success' doctrine will come true, is a different story that shall unfold in the coming week.