A quick glance through most of the social media sites, what’s app, the corner store and name wherever, signs screaming ‘Happy Women’s Day’ greet you from everywhere. Sadly for me as a woman I somehow feel the pangs of discrimination more than ever. Why does our society need a special day to respect women, pay tribute to them and make them feel special? Why are the rest of the 364days never used to do so? Do few roses and a bar chocolate suffice for the ill-treatment meted out to her day in and day out? I am confused. Is it ok to go and outrage her modesty as long as the chocolate and roses were there at the right time on the right day?
Not just in the Indian society but perhaps world over, women have continued to be at the centre of some of the most heinous crimes, receiver of some of the most inhuman atrocities and among the most forgiving species of the human kind who have learnt to take everything in their stride and move on because they are WOMEN afterall. Yes for generations now we have been fed on this one simple thought that if you are woman you better learn to play it safe, avoid dangerous places, learn to be submissive and what not? Just this one day of special sale at the shopping malls, flurry of rose offerings and other goodies suffice for the injustice meted out for generations to her.
The very need to assign a special day to accord respect to them in itself is a huge representation of the hypocrisy. You could say that perhaps not. Yes it could be a signal that many are waking up to the injustice and the unfair treatment of women. But as long as it remains a one day wonder, little or perhaps nothing can be achieved through it. Women’s Day is about recognising the special place that women deserve in our societies and assessment of the initiatives or the ground covered in terms of according the same.
Therefore as the celebrations for this year draw to a close, let’s take on the challenge in a more constructive manner. Let’s make a beginning not just with roses and chocolates but also with a pledge to ensure that we can offer every woman around us a place of respect, an opportunity to educate and a sense of comprehensive security going forward.
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