Happy Woman’s Day:
Empowering her this year
Happy woman’s Day-
it was a text message I typed on the mobile and kept pondering for
a while. 8th March: I was
about to send the message to the women who was an inseparable part of my life
who was the cause of my being – My Mother. When I was a baby I was heartily
welcomed in this world. I was suckled with milk of care and warmth of love, I
was a blessed being. When I was a toddler, I was reared up with attention and
caution. I used to fall down often and bruise my knee or elbow. The woman who
would break into tears with my each cry was the one whom I called mother. When
I was a child I was sent to the school. I left the hands of my mother went
inside the yellow building – which soon devoured me. I met another woman like
my mother – she was my teacher. When I was growing I learnt about the world, I
saw more women, I saw goodness, I saw humility. I saw acceptance, I saw
sacrifice – from more women whomever I came across. Now I am a woman too, and I
received text messages wishing me ‘Happy Woman’s Day’.
But the reiterating
question that arises in my mind is ‘why is this special day celebrated?’ any
specialty is an unusual matter of fact. Then are women something unusual of her
kind? Are we not capable enough to handle our pros and cons? Or we are special
for being treated the unfair sex? If that is so, then this day is a disgrace
for women who are the subjects, who are being celebrated for their womanhood.
Why do we celebrate woman’s day? Why there is no Man’s Day celebrated? UN is
treating Women with special care and attending to the various issues which are
posing hindrances for their straight progress. Is it not inequality from the
part of the women and the UN who are not giving attention to the better half of
the civilization?
Its 2015 now, the
world is “empowering women, empowering humanity: picture it”. But I saw a
picture which took me back a thousand year before. I saw girls are getting
married in their teens, uneducated, afraid and backward, humanity is mired.
Female foeticides, female infanticides are still practiced rampant in hidden
backyards which reports a magnificent number (some 10 million foeticides in
last two decades). The elderly ladies abuse the newly widowed daughter-in-law
for being pregnant by her dead husband. Or a rape victim never recovers in
spite of sending her in rehabilitation centre. Also every 5th girl
gets beaten up for not giving a lump of dowry in the rural and urban India. In
every step a girl faces challenges of rape, molestation, torture, exploitation,
verbal abuse, sexual harassment. Picture hasn’t changed yet. Census 2011 says
for every 1000 males, only 943 females available, where will the rest 57 males
go? Epics are truest for our kind – Draupadi’s still have five husbands, who
beat her every night, rape her legally and sell her away for few more lakhs.
Gang rapes are mounting; the instinctive animals are rocking back and forth
wrapping the white dhotis and kurta. Silence speaks for the female folk who are
crying day and night in villages, or in cities, in houses and in the streets.
When shall we get power to live a life of Human being?
UN celebrates
“empowerment of women” this year. If that is so, then let us jot down, what are
the current achievements to celebrate the womanhood. I found more number of
rape cases in the dailies, describing the brutality in a cliché but looking
through the other glass. Rape is no more a crime of which the women are afraid
of; they speak of rape easily, breaking taboo of Indian conservatism. Rules
against sexual harassments are pasted on walls warning the animals in the crowd
in a tamed way. Girls are getting education and proving her equality in every
aspect of work, every sphere of challenge and every sectors of the industry –
64.9% of the females in India are educated now; But what are the rest of them
doing – tilling the land, throwing the seeds, making chapattis and suckling
babies? They must be doing so, they are our sisters too – whom we need to send
letters of love and literacy, gifts of peace and power – they are the left out
lot of the crew.
When showcasing the
empowerment of women we equal voting rights, we see special provisions of law,
we see Kalpana Chawla in space, Indira Gandhi in governance, Kiran Bedi in
Police, Bachendri Pal on the Mount Everest and Bula Chaudhuri crossing the
English channel. We have walked a long road; But this walk could not have been
possible without those free thinking men who saved us from the pyre of sati,
gave books in our hand, removed ‘pardah’ and showed us light of the world – the
brighter world, and loved and cared, and reared us up to be better human beings
– for those men ,we are women now : empowered and dignified in the Twenty first
century.
Now we go to
schools in school bus, wear mini-skirts, jeans and tops; we use mobile phones.
We go to universities in other countries for higher education. Among us we find
Indra Nooyi (CFO, Pepsico – the second largest food and beverage giant), Naina
Lal Kidwai (Group General Manager and country head of HSBC India), Kiran Shaw
(Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon Limited), Chandra Kochar (MD
and CEO of ICICI Bank), Indu Jain (Former Chairperson of Times Group) who
believe in short cuts, but are at the same time confident, ambitious and
challenging. They have an enormous fire within - they are our role
models.
India is among the
fastest growing economies of the world - and Indian women are called ‘Rani
of Jhansi’, or ‘Chennamma the Brave’. In spite of mountainous upheavals, social
discrimination was practicing its course since Gargi and Maitree have gone from
the ancient early vedic Samitis – the Hindu Dharmasastra or the Manusmriti was
condemning women for her character and reduced her to a state of a matter of
Desire. But, her strength, of the Goddess Durga has killed the demon of
Orthodox Brahminical Patriarchy, religious superiority and broken off the
‘shades of grey’ which was distributing her existence – we are now the
generation of Modernism ; ‘the greatest discovery of any generation is that the
human being can alter his life by altering his attitude’ (by Willam James).
The democracy
‘India is measuring her progress – we have achieved a lot, women are almost
equal to men, whatever percent is yet to be achieved, ‘there need to be
revolutionary change in the perception of both men and women. But it is the
women who must come out in large number and engage themselves in the
developmental process with unwavering zeal and discrimination, then nothing can
deter them from being empowered’.
[ SULAGNA DUTTA]
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