On March 8th, the world celebrates International
Women’s Day, to honor the achievements of women and calling for greater
equality. This year, the event highlights the Beijing Declaration and Platform
for Action, a historic roadmap signed by 189 governments 20 years ago that sets
the agenda for realizing women’s rights. The theme this year is ‘Make it
happen’ that urges women to recognize their own potential and take the
initiative to build a better and more equal world.
Taking the cue from the theme this year, the editorial committee
of Songsoptok decided to dedicate the March issue of the blog to women. In any
case, a large number of our contributors are women, but this time we wanted to
focus on the thoughts, feelings, emotions, and aspirations of women, as
expressed by themselves, of course, but also by men – as they perceive it. Our
decision was greeted with enthusiasm by our readers & authors, and a lot of
them came forward to contribute.
We are very proud to present this issue, we are proud of the
incredible participation we got from both men & women. But I cannot help
ask myself as to why this should be considered as a special initiative in the
21st century. Why should women have a special treatment? Shouldn’t
they enjoy the same rights and same freedom as men? Should we continue to treat
women differently? In a perfect world, the answer would be a resounding NO. But as we all know, sadly, the world we live in today is far
from perfect. In spite of their astounding achievements in all spheres of life,
women continue to be the ‘second sex’, fighting every day for their rights to
education, to health, to equal opportunities both inside the family and
outside, to their fundamental rights to decide what they want to be and how
they want to live their lives. Large parts of the world still consider women as
chattel, to be dealt with as per the norms defined by men, irrespective of the
level of economic, social and cultural aspects.
As we all know, gender discrimination continues to plague the
human society. Discrimination takes different forms, are expressed in different
ways in different societies. India has unfortunately been in the limelight for
quite some time now for rampant gender discrimination, and we wanted to know
how this is perceived both by men & women. We designed a new questionnaire dealing
with the issue of gender discrimination and asked both men & women to reply
to it. 11 women and 2 men, living in different countries and from different
generations replied to the questionnaire. We invite you to read them and get a
real insight into what gender discrimination and how modern men and women are trying
their best to ensure a more equal society for women.
Another new feature in this issue is an entire section dedicated
to what is commonly referred to as Generation Y. We invited young girls and
women to share their creative efforts with us. Their contributions are
published in the ‘Last Page’ section of our blog. You can get a glimpse of
their bright young creative minds and the way they think. A special thanks to
our youngest author ever – Yamani Roy, all of 12 years old, and to all the
other young women who sent us their creations. And a very special thanks to
Subrato Mitra for the wonderful photographs you see in this issue.
I want to end
this editorial with the raging controversy that is currently going on about the
documentary ‘India’s daughter’ by the British Director Leslee Udwin, about the
gruesome rape and murder of Jyoti Pandey back in 2012. Subhodev Das has written
an excellent article – ‘Who is Afraid of the Truth’ – a
brilliant review of the film and his own analysis. A part of the nation is up
in arms crying ‘dishonor’ – a word cherished by the reactionary forces. They
are outraged because one of the convicts, Mukhesh Singh, is interviewed at
length and puts forward his point of view about women. Derogatory, yes, but
then, would you expect anything else from a rapist? What I did not expect,
however, are the blatant misogyny of the defense lawyers – one who declares
that there is no place for women in Indian culture, and the other who affirms
that he would kill any woman in his family who behaves improperly. Two representatives
of the modern Indian society, representing the ‘rule of law’, the impartial
justice system. I have a lot of respect for defense lawyers in all countries,
because they, presumably and hopefully through a sense of justice, defend the
worst criminals. I think these Indian lawyers defending the convicts are doing
it precisely because they actually think like the rapists. And there are no
comments about their shameful declarations from the antagonists. Not
surprising, once again, but it does go to show the real mindset still prevalent
in India.
In spite of everything, women still need to fight for their
fundamental rights, not only in India but all over the world. In some countries
they fight for their right to education, health and probably just survival. In
others they fight violence, especially at home, from husbands or partners. They
fight at the workplace for equal pay, equal recognition, and equal
responsibilities. They carry out the constant and fine balancing act between
home and work and the myriads of other responsibilities that they need to
fulfill.
In this context, dedicating one day in the year to women is not
too much – in fact, it is too little! There is no point in saying that each day
of the year should be dedicated to them. That will not happen. But on this
symbolic day, we salute all women irrespective of color, race, religion, education…
May you all bloom, may you make this world a better place for all.
Happy Women’s Day
[APARAJITA SEN]
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