“As Women, We must Stand Up for ourselves.
As Women, we must Stand up for each other.
As Women, we must Stand up for justice for All.”
- Michelle Obama
Come March and most women start looking forward to March 8th, a day that celebrates womanhood, when the world comes together to take a pause and appreciate women in their lives, be it the mother, daughter, sister, wife or a girlfriend. Yet, a question that looms large is when this ‘gesture of appreciation’ will become a part of our culture? When will we respect and appreciate the women in our life, without waiting for a specific day.
Women have come a long way from where they were in early 80’s when they had just stepped out of the closet to take up jobs in offices, yet they were hired to play a certain kind of role and their selection was largely dependent on the physical attributes and not so much as for their intellect or capability. Thus phrases like ‘beauty with brain’ came into being to be used for exceptional talent, but the beauty aspect could not be disengaged from a woman. Prior to this, women were employed in hospitality, aviation, media and medical industry, playing a specific role of a receptionist, air hostess, newsreader, nurse etc. respectively.
However, with evolving times, the role of a woman in our society has changed tremendously. She has spread her wings going beyond a ‘care giver’ to a ‘bread winner’ and society at large has begun to realize the importance of gender diversity at workplace. Today, more and more opportunities have started opening up for women, its no surprise then that in India, 40% of corporate workforce is of women, and more than 10% senior management positions are held by them. Women have made a mark in diverse professions ranging from economists, scientists, entrepreneurs,doctors, engineers, pilots, bureaucrats, technologists,media journalists, sports, academicians, writers etc. etc.
But unfortunately, while the urban woman has moved rapidly to close in the gender divide and is beginning to make a mark as an equal in ever right, the majority of women in tier 2 cities and rural hinterland have yet not got, the due respect and 'pride of place'. It is surprising to note that over 60% of the agricultural labour in our country is women, who are literally playing the role of ‘Ann-Data’ or the provider of food, however they still have no personal rights, are forced to live a life of hunger, misery and pain, as they continue to be the 3rd class citizens in their own country, worse than any other minority. We may have women reservation on Panchayats and Women heading some of these, but are they really allowed to function independently or they are just shadows of their male counterparts?
It is for these women, that we the women of urban India need to come together and take up the cause of women empowerment in rural hinterland with greater vigour. We have still not succeeded in changing mind-sets of rural India, we need to scale up our efforts through education and awareness to ensure we put an end to female foeticide and infanticide, which is the starting point of injustice to women. For decades, campaigns are being run in the media, but are they really effective? Time to check and rework our strategy, as clearly whatever we have done in the past or are doing today is not enough to make a major impact.
On the International Women’s Day, let's awaken the wonder woman inside us and come together to work for the liberation of all women of India, bringing them on an equal footing with their male counterparts, to give them what is rightfully theirs.
Amidst this background, it will be interesting to note if the upcoming Bollywood movie ‘KA and KI’ by director R Balaki, starring Kareena and Arjun Kapoor, is able to make a dent in the conservative mind-sets of our ecosystem.
Happy Women’s Day!
March 8, 2016
