WOMEN’S DAY!

                    On this occasion of International Women’s Day, I wish to each and every wonderful woman in the world who makes change in their own unique way to the world more power and more strength.

“Woman is the companion of man gifted with equal mental capacity,

If by strength is meant moral power, woman is immeasurably a man’s superior

If non-violence is the law of our being, then the future is with Women”

                                                                                                                                    -Mahatma Gandhi

                   Today, being a lazy Sunday morning I woke up to an innumerous number of Happy Women’s Day messages all over the social media including twitter, facebook, whatsapp, instagram, etc. Being over enthusiastic with all these messages I too posted my share of wishes on such medium of self-expression. Then I got up and went to the kitchen for my breakfast and saw my mother working in the kitchen, and I thought to myself, what can I do to make this woman’s day special for the most special woman in my life. I was thinking this with a mug of tea and freshly baked Indian bread made of millet flour known as 'Bajra ka rotla' with homemade white butter that mom had made for our breakfast. I was reading the newspaper while having the breakfast and the first page was about the Woman’s Day and about the courageous women and how they have taken over in each and every field of occupation right from being a valiant police officer to driving a truck. I was loathing in all this woman’s day frenzy and was somehow for no reason feeling proud of being a woman. Then I turned over the page and on the very second page was a very disturbing news which said that a 28 year old man shoved and iron rod in the private parts of a liitle 6 year old girl, which resulted in the rupture of the girl’s uterus. There was also yet another article about the documentary of the ghorish rapists about the Nirbhaya rape incident and how shamelessly and remorselessly it has been described to be a woman’s fault in the ‘Rape’. And with a thud I fell to the ground of harsh reality from floating in the artificial bubble created by this Woman’s Day frenzy. And I thought to myself is this really a Woman’s World or why are we really celebrating a Woman’s Day or what does a woman’s day really mean?

            I did a little research on the internet (it is a very easy means of information today), and google opened up a number of pages for me which described the history of how a woman’s day came into existence. I would like to share the information with my readers so that instead of the day being about sending forward messages and images on the social media, we would make an attempt to recognise the importance and crux behind devoting a Day to celebrate “Womanhood”. It all started in 1909, New York city where on 28^th February ‘Women’s Day Observance’ was held by Socialist Party of America in honor of the strike held by International Ladies Garment Work Union, fighting for the working rights of women in the factories. The next year, 1910, it was celebrated to honour the movement for women's rights and to build support for achieving universal suffrage for women, which received a unanimous support from 17 countries. Each year there was a different objective raised by the activists in various countries for basic rights like right to work, discrimination at work place, right to vote etc. however a fixed day was never fixed until then. In 1975, which was called the International Woman’s Year, United Nations (a world-based organisation formed after World War II in 1945 to address to various global issues including women's rights) declared the day 8^th of March as International Woman’s Day. Since then the United Nations give various different themes on each Woman’s Day to address and throw light on various hardships that women face in day-to-day life. Some of the remarkable themes are-

Celebrating the Past, Planning for Future- 1996

Women and Peace, Managing Conflicts – 2001

Women in Decision Making- 2006

Investing in Women and Girls- 2008

Women and Men United to End Violence Against Women and Girls- 2009

 Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for All- 2010

Equal Access to Education, Training, and Science and Technology: Pathway to Decent Work for Women- 2011

 Empower Rural Women, End Poverty and Hunger- 2012

 A Promise is a Promise: Time for Action to End Violence Against Women- 2013

 Equality for Women is Progress for All- 2014

EMPOWERING WOMEN, EMPOWERING HUMANITY: PICTURE IT! #MakeItHappen-2015

                   

                In different countries it is celebrated in different ways including men giving flowers or gifts to the women who matter in their life and the women just feeling special and being pampered by the loved ones. It is sweet and it is a good way to celebrate but is that all to a Woman’ Day? I have read a few lewd messages and jokes on the media saying that all days are women’s days etc. Yes for a few lucky ones like us who have been living in the urban and civilized societies it may be the truth, but what we do have to realize that it is more than just a day to fill up your in-boxes with messages. It is a movement to appreciate the efforts taken by the courageous women in past which has made our lives so much rosy and comfortable that we are able to live a free and a fulfilling life. It is also an opportunity to realize how much difficult it is for the majority of women staying all over the world still and how hundreds of them are still bound in the shackles of the society norms and are struggling in their day to day lives. It is a day to read about the revolutionary work done by some great women in the world, like Sarojini Naidu, Mother Teressa, Malala Yousafzai, Alice Walker, etc.

             It is also an occasion to celebrate the women in our own homes, our grandmothers, our mothers, our elder sisters etc who all in some or the other way must have contributed in changing pre-instilled gender biased thoughts of the men. It is also an occasion to thank the men in our lives and otherwise who give us an opportunity to grow and blossom and also give us strength to do more than the rest of the still struggling women can do. It is important as a Woman to realize your own worth and the potential untapped power inside yourself. That is what the Woman’s Day 2015 is all about-  EMPOWERING YOURSELF (WOMEN) AND EMPOWERING HUMANITY. So girls, oops, Women, lets realize the worth of the day, the revolution that has led to this day being a special one and let’s celebrate it. It’s time to MAKE IT HAPPEN   

The information of the history of Women’s Day has been sourced from

www.un.org

http://en.wikipedia.org