To all the bold and beautiful women and my
dear friends....
International
Women’s Day is celebrated every year on March 8 to felicitate the achievements
of women around the globe. The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day
is Be Bold For Change. Women have a
history of fighting against the odes and victoriously reigning over the dark
forces of patriarchy, inequality, gender disparity among many others. This is
an occasion to celebrate the courage of women down the history and to encourage
many more to take up bold steps towards a greater change.
Women
in India are in need of a great change. Women here are discriminated even
before they are born. 7 million girl children are killed every
year; Nearly 12 million Indian children are married off before the age of
10 years; In India a woman is reportedly raped every 15 minutes. There are
more than 57,300 cases of kidnapping and abduction of women every year. As
many as 2.24 million crimes against women were reported over the past decade:
26 crimes against women are reported every hour, or one complaint every two
minutes.
There
are more infant mortality rate among girls. Girls are not given same medical attention
as boys. More than 50% of girls in villages fail to enroll to schools due to
lack of separate toilets for them. 70% women are not part of the workforce. The
access to basic things like healthcare, water, sanitation and education is
denied to most of our sisters of this country. Those who have these privileges
are denied the power to make choices on the other hand.
Today,
women have come to a realization that there is no limit to what they can
achieve. They do all those what men can, even in a better way. And also they undergo
much more than a man can possibly undergo. International Women’s Day reminds
every woman that they have a potential to be the next Rosa Parks, Marie Curie,
Elizabeth Stanton, Kalpana Chawla, Helen Keller, Sudha Chandran, Arunima Sinha,
Malathi Krishnamurthy and the list goes on.
In this International Women’s Day, not only women
should stand for themselves. But also men should stand up for women. It is
almost like a taboo today for a man to speak out for equality or stand with
women against violence or abuse. Once our mothers stood up for us, by bringing
us into this world and shower us with abundance of love and care. We are
supported at every walks of our lives by our sisters, wives or daughters. Now
it is time for men to stand up for women from different sections of society. We
need to create a society of collaboration between men and women instead of
conflict. We need to stand against injustice and violence against women. We
have spoken enough, we should show it in our actions now. Men have an
important role to play in sending out the message that real men do not hurt or
abuse women. We need to be the ones who start the conversation among ourselves
that women have been trying to have with us for centuries. Let us set examples
for our younger generations. Let us set examples for our generation, and the
generations older than us. Let us be the ones who alter the course of history
by saying enough is enough. Now is the time for change, and let us be the ones
who bring it about.
India
being home to different faith traditions has a past of celebrating diversity at
every level. The rich influence of religion in Indian soil naturally makes
religious leaders allies in driving the advancement of women’s rights in this
land. In a land where patriarchal traditions and cultural practices condone
discrimination against women, true interpretation of religion has the power to
break barriers and unlock the human potential. There has to be a
meeting point for women and religious leaders. Religions can and should play a
major role to empower women and also men and non-binary individuals of society
to work together for the development of society. Empowered women are the future of India. Strong and bold women will build our future. It is time to be bold. Be courageous - Be Bold For Change.
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