Much more to do for a Happy Women's Day

WOMAN’S DAY- A day dedicated to women, to remind the world about their contribution 365 days of the year. The day should not be about celebrating our superiority in comparison to men. This world will be able to nurture kids only when there is balance between the roles of men and women. Woman’s day is a reminder to us to cherish being a woman, cherish our strengths, our emotions. So what if we cry for TV soap characters, so what if we throw a tantrum at that time of the month!

In my bachelors and masters study of sociology there was a subject about society and women, it outlined the status of women in our society, how it was in the days gone by and how it has evolved from keeping women safe in the home, not allowing them to study, burning them as brides, then the revolution of helping educating them, eradicating practices like sati and dowry, empowering women etc.

Women are revered in our religion; we have over a thousand different goddesses. The study of sociology helped me understand the basic need of society in keeping women safe: women give birth to children, so when you destroy the women of any society you automatically destroy that society. 

But as I read I wondered, are we as a society going full circle in our attitudes towards women? Female feticide, rape, urban dowry. Development cannot be in a circle because then you come back to the starting point which would be dangerous. This  is exactly what will happen to the status of women in society if we are not careful. The recent spate of rapes, molestations will lead to women being kept at home so that they can be safe. This would mean going back to where we started, women not allowed to go out on their own, families not willing to educate women due to the fear for their safety and families not wanting a daughter for the fear that she will be a burden due to safety issues.

Many important changes have taken place in the legal status of women by giving women the right to divorce, guardianship of the children in the case of divorce or widowhood.  The law also recognizes the right of a daughter in her father’s estates after his death. But for most of the women in this country it is just on paper, not being practiced by the very males (brothers) and females (mothers)  that are supposed to uphold this society and the right of women.

The older anti-social practices against women such as sati, child marriage or female infanticide have been replaced by new ones such as bride burning for non-fulfillment of dowry and female feticides. We don’t even have toilets for women in villages.

The world Conference of the U.N. Decade for women held at Copenhagen in 1980 has defined that ‘The improvement of the status of women requires a change in the attitudes and roles of both men and women.  Women’s development should not only be viewed as an issue in social development but should be seen as an essential component in every dimension of development.’

It’s time that women support women and bring about the change in the status of women in the family, society and workforce. Happy women’s day to you, to your lady servant who helps you, to your mother, to your sister, to your daughter, to your lady boss and to your women employees and all the mothers that you meet every day when they come to drop their children in your care.

Happy women’s day, may our tribe increase and prosper socially, emotionally and safely.