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 28th 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 8th 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
