It is always proud being a woman and International Women’s Day is an opportunity to commemorate this wonderful journey of being a woman. A woman brings life on Earth. She is self-reliant and independent and is capable of doing everything she desires. We women now have started realising our strengths, abilities and are ready to step out and create a beautiful tomorrow for everyone around us.

A challenged world is an alert world which leads to change. So, let us together pledge and come forward and empower every woman as I believe “Empowering Women is a Responsibility”. Let us unite in building a place free from gender-biased roles and discrimination where everyone is equally recognised for their abilities, flair and goodness.

On this International Women’s Day, I would love to invite you to share your thoughts and observations on empowering women on how we can eradicate gender inequality, thus in the truest sense celebrating Women’s Day.

Please submit your writings at blog@rinikibhuyansharma.com

Women Empowerment, India and the Twenty-first Century

By Sangeeta Saikia Pathak (sangeetasaikia244@gmail.com)

The term ‘Women Empowerment’ is a very ‘potent’ and ‘promising’ term! It makes a person feel the overwhelming presence of powerful women in our society or the country as a whole. A powerful woman is described as someone who occupies a commanding or respectable position in society and can influence the decisions in the policy making process of a country.

Now, the question that arises here is that why do women need to be empowered at all?

India has a patriarchal society where the lineage of a family is maintained primarily by the male progenitor. As such, the need for a male child is a priority more than anything else! Traditionally, girls in Indian society are regarded as ‘paraya dhan’ meaning others’ property. Society believes that girls need to be married off at an early age, lest they become a liability for their parents. Hence, in several Indian communities, emphasis is laid on investing money for solemnizing marriages of the girl child rather than her education.

Once the girl is married off, she becomes the property of her husband and in- laws. Her future depends on her fate or rather the family into which she is married off. If she is married to a liberal or progressive family, she has the right to live her life in her own way. But if she is married to a conservative and orthodox family, there will be several restrictions imposed on her life.

Money is somewhat an important requirement of life. It is also essential that a woman has financial freedom! In that scenario, education is of utmost necessity for women empowerment. However, in a patriarchal society, where women are labelled as the fairer sex, the lack of respect for a woman poses a great challenge!

The fact that one should respect a woman for just being who she is, is something that is lacking in the 21st century. The alarming rise of incidences such as rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and dowry related atrocities only expose the hollowness of so-called ‘modern’ Indian society.

Women are not just commodities or sexual objects–this is something that a patriarchal society needs to understand and firmly believe in! The concept of a gender divide begins in the family itself. While girls are taught to clean dishes and utensils, cook food and wash clothes, the boys in the family are encouraged to study, learn driving and work on their shopping skills. That is where the gender divide becomes prominent!

If the girl manages to study and becomes a working woman, she still has to multitask to run both the office and her home. Both the man and the woman leave for office at the same time, say 10 am. But the girl has to complete all the household chores and even cook breakfast before leaving home! Though physically men are stronger than women, practically it is the other way round where women manage both the office and house work. In some cases, though, if the woman is lucky, she gets a supportive husband who helps her in the household chores. The idea of not leaving household chores to the woman alone needs to be infused among menfolk from a young age.

While the intellect or talent of a person has nothing to do with his or her sex, one often sees that some men cannot bear to see a woman surpassing them in terms of success, financial or otherwise. This leads to them taunting such women to enforce, as it were, the male ego. Women thus are deprived of their due recognition in society just because they are born as women.

There is also a certain societal construct in Indian society that makes an unmarried woman, a widow, a divorcee or a low-caste woman, an inferior being, looked down upon by society. These things should never be an obstacle in respecting womanhood! Respecting womanhood irrespective of caste, creed, colour or religion is something that needs to be emphasized on if women empowerment is to be really practised in Indian society.

The status of women in society is a major yardstick for determining the rate of civilization of that society. During the Vedic ages, there was great respect for women. Unfortunately, we in the 21st century and have fallen victim to suppression and oppression by patriarchy.

In the country today, only about 33 per cent of jobs is reserved for women in government organisations. The Right to Inherit Paternal Property is not the only thing that can guarantee women empowerment in society. While it is true that most Indian women nowadays have financial freedom unlike their grandmothers, it is also equally true that Indian women still have a long way to go to really feel empowered.

Leading a dignified and respectable life is just as important as financial freedom. A lady placed in the higher echelons of an organisation is still jeered by her male juniors. A single woman driving alone on an Indian street is still something few men can handle! They often pass derogatory remarks. A lady working diligently in office will be given a bad grade in her annual confidential report (ACR) by her male boss just because she is a woman. A working woman returning home late from office is often frowned upon by her neighbours. These are the typical mindsets of certain men that need to change if Indian women need to lead dignified lives in Indian society. Only then can Women Empowerment be a reality in India.