Woman empowerment In India – A Reality Check
Like the clockwork, the podium is dusted, the sashes taken out, aired out to get the stinking moth-ball smell out and the token sashes and awards ordered. The wilting flowers ordered, wrapped in cellophane to be handed out with the fixed smile. One can compare the wilt to the life of us women.
India proudly proclaims to be a superpower, a developed nation, a power to be reckoned. We cry ourselves hoarse “ Mera Bharta Mahaan” but are the woman empowered . Are they free from the clutches of the evils which befall her?
International Women’s day is a day which is an occasion marked by women’s group around the world. It started in the year 1910. This day is commemorated to merge the lives of women across different continents that are divided by national boundaries by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, political, social economic differences. They all come together to celebrate the day which represents the struggle of decades for the fight of equality, against oppression, and towards all round development. It is a move to recognize to the ordinary women who has become ‘extra-ordinary”.
There is however, a reason to worry , where the picture gets dismal and one wonders whether this is just a token day , one which has lost its meaning and is just a mere eye-wash.
Some truths:
1. Girls are killed, aborted and if born are killed in the most inhumane, horrific way thrown in the alleys, by lanes, dust-bins and sometimes even with their umbilical cord wrapped around them and blood smeared.
2. Certain sections of society do not send their girls to school when they attain puberty.
3. Dowry harassment, deaths are not new, they all have become old news. We all have become so de-sensitised that we do not even read the news, just merely skipping it for salacious gossip.
4. Sexual harassment goes on and on, at least 60% of the cases are not reported for the fear of society pressure.
5. Legislative strength is 10%
6. Crimes on woman are on the rise, working women face, assault, rape, murder, eve-teasing is rampant. An increasing number of disfigurement cases have come into the limelight, acid throwing being one of them.
7. Widows are still looked down; it is still a traditional closed society. Re-marriage is frowned upon.
8. Gender disparity is still rampant, rearing its ugly head in Punjab, Haryana.
9. Men only a select few look upon women as sex objects!
India ranks a miserable 53rd out of the 58 nations in the report called “women Empowerment: - Measuring the Global Gender Gap.”This gap measures the difference between men and women in economic participation, economic opportunity, political empowerment, and access to education, access to reproductive health care. We reflect the largest disparity.
Women play roles in a multi-faceted way: be it a mother, sister, daughter, learner, worker and she is the only one who begets LIFE.
It is important that this empowerment which is making its way be all year around for every minute every second and not a mere tokenisim. Like the way the requisite quota seats are filled by companies to show gender equality. We want respect, self esteem, our birthright and not one day to commemorate woman-hood. Aren’t we special everyday?