Women's Day Special!!!

March 8^th is International Women's Day!

Every year during this time everyone – media, government, social activists…..are abuzz with talks on Women’s Day. Everyone suddenly starts to talk only about women’s right. What does this day really mean? Is it a day when by some unspoken signalwomenall over the world are given their rightful place in society? Are all mothers given the day off from their parenting duties? Do their husbands and children pause a moment to think about what their wives and mothers do for them on a daily basis?

Sadly No! It is just another day for most of these women!

'Woman'- is a word that conjures up a lot of images in our minds and brings out varied emotions of selfless love, nurturing and caring. Woman is sometime the dutiful wife, other time she is an obedient daughter, she is a caring mother, and is also an adoring sister.  She plays all her roles with ease, balancing each one with utmost care. A woman is the epitome of love, sacrifice and care. She has the unique ability to provide and nurture life.  

But, over the years, the woman’s worth and contributions have been ignored and they have been subjected to gross injustice by the society.  She has been, time and again, put through many injustice, wrong practices and inequality.

 Although all of us take pride in our Indian culture, we need to recognize that there is something fundamentally wrong with a culture that assumes the superiority of males, and that celebrates Indian women for being meek, submissive and sacrificial. One way you can help counter this mindset is by being proud of the women in your life, and by taking pride in yourself if you are a woman.

I think we can atleast take the following steps towards our goal:

Educate our daughters - Get serious about your daughter's education. Encourage her to have a career of her own, no matter what your financial standing.

Say no to dowry - Even modern, well-educated families start saving up money for their daughter's dowry as soon as she is born, so what can one expect from the uneducated masses, whose only form of education is tradition?

Teach herself-respect from early childhood - The greatest need of the hour is to change the social attitude to women; especially she herself realizing her worth and learning to respect herself.

Remember, Woman is in no way inferior to her counterpart,man  -From time immemorial, woman represents history in all its grace and distress in terms of time and space, social ups and down, political subjugation and freedom. In religion, social intercourse, education, literature, art and culture, her status was never in doubt.

Celebrating Women's Day gives an opportunity to everyone who care, to appreciate the remarkable contributions of women to our society.

This March 8^th as we celebrate International Women’s day, I wish there was some way in which we could know how many less female foeticide were there, how many less girls died for dowry; or howmany men decided not to hit their wives; or how many more girls were encouraged to get an education; or how many fathers thought that their daughters were not a burden on them and could be allowed to grow atleast till 18 years before they could be married off!

 

Wishing all the women their rightful place in this society and wishing all the men realize and start respecting the women around and in their lives this Women’s Day! Happy Women’s Day!

                                                                         - DOLA SAHA,

                                                                                        Staff Advisor – College Magazine,

                                                                                    Assistant Professor – Selection grade,

                                                                         Dept. of Health Information Management,

                                                    Manipal College of Allied Health Sciences, Manipal University