As the sun shone brightly in the sky, I woke up today rather lazily. Today was going to be just another sunday...in classrooms and library. As I hurried myself for the lecture, I saw my cell was showing 3 new messages. I wondered if lecture was cancelled postponed and if I could go back to sleep. What surprised me was I had messages wishing me "Happy womans day". I mean wow, I didnt know people celebrated it so passionately.
Coming to think of it, this may not be the time to really 'celebrate' International Women's Day. Just recently, women were beaten for sitting in a pub; one was forced to strip naked for an FIR to be lodged against her husband. I read an article somewhere which said that - "woman is raped every 35 minutes in India; female child mortality is higher than male by 25%-50% in India, Bangladesh and Nepal; about 60% of women all over the world have complained about sexual harassment and that the average South Asian woman's risk of dying in childbirth is a hundred times greater than for a woman in an industrialised country (1 in 43 for South Asia and 1 in 4,000 for the developed world)". How do we react on such statistics?.
All echo in one voice that nothing can be changed unless the women are empopwered. But the point is that if everyone knows this, why isnt it being done ?? And if its being done, how long do we have to wait until we finally see the results. Can we atleast hope to see the results sometime?
The Taliban are now terrorising the Swatis, Pashtuns and what is shocking is that they can, at will, blow up girls' schools and colleges, burn down music shops and punish women who go out unaccompanied by a male relative. In the name of implementing Sharia law, such actions will actually be legitimised and the worst sufferers will be women.
Whenever there are celebrations of women achievers I have always been confused on how to react to it. Yes there is no fact denying that we have had Kalpana Chawala, Indira Nooyi, Aishwarya Rai, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Naina Lal Kidwani and many more like them. And there are no qualms about their achievements. But I dont think they really represent the women of India. And why them, even a ordinary girl like me doesnt.
I dont come from a family who denies me education for the sake of my brothers studies. I am not made to cook because studying is worthless for me. No one ever tells me that education is waste cause ultimately the only thing I have to do is to manage someones home. The only place where I have known about child marriage is in books or magazines and never seen it happening. I dont have to wear a saree that covers me head to heels even in scorching summer days. My opinion is actually asked, valued and counted. I am not beaten up by someone who comes home drunken. I have a dream that is cherished, valued, protected and promoted by my family freinds and colleagues. These are just few of the basic things that make me misrepresent todays woman in India. When I look out of my window onto the slums adjacent to my house, I feel this profoundly more than ever.
I know I have grown up in a very safe protected world and may be I do not even have the remotest idea of what the plight of women really is. But now after the Mangalore and the Bangalore incidents, I feel theatened, angry and helpless all at the same time. I wonder whats next and now I dont even know whether I can go out and celebrate Womens day today without being beaten, or even killed !!
