Women’s Day
is celebrated all over the world and wishes pour in, programs are organized, special
offers are being made by business houses to make women feel special. That’s great! Such a day dedicated in the
name of women enable us to recognize the fact that women are treated with
equity so as to build an inclusive society with gender parity. However, a day does not change the way we
think and behave until it comes from within and that which requires constant pursuit
to break some of the taboos to overcome the mental models that have been built
over a period of time. The thought process has to be backed by a constant
practice of what and how we think.
The whole
intention is to strengthen women and empower them. But in reality, are we really providing them
the needed strength? Just take the case of menstruation. Let alone villages, even in the most advanced
cities, mothers and relatives of girls instill a kind of fear about menstruating
and make them believe that as a problem and not as a natural course. Girls have great fear and are psyched about
getting their period and feel weak and fail to perform during these days. We
know that there is a steep drop in girls’ education in the age of 12 to 15 due
to this. Can we instill confidence in
our girls saying that is a natural process and it won’t affect our body and
mind?
Is there
any girl who has not become a victim of judgments of others? People are more judgmental about girls and
women right from clothing to hairstyles to skin color to their behaviors. Everything is seen with a different lens making
girls and women weaker each time. People
don’t mind commenting in the open about being fat or skinny, dark or fair, tall
or short and so on. These body shaming
remarks and sweeping comments make girls and women more conscious and they develop
a feeling of not being enough. Can we
reserve our comments and stop seeing them from the appearance lens and start
seeing girls and women from the potential and the ability lens?
Very
recently I was conversing with one of my students, who was engaged and
getting married. Her in-laws were
insisting her to take a different career path.
When girls are given education, don’t they have the ability to make a
right career choice. Can we only support
them in making a choice but not pushing them to subscribe to our choices?
One of my
cousin’s daughter is an expecting mother. She is just 21. She aspires to pursue
civil services. I asked her, “if you are
so ambitious about your career you could have waited for some time till you
attempted your exams?”. She replied, “settling in life for girls means marriage”.
She is forced to think that ultimately
one has to get married and that is the first priority in life. That’s the reason why we see though girls’
education is on the rise, though the pass percentage outnumbers boys and they
being the rank holders, the work force participation of women does not match with
the number of women being educated. Can
we make them realize their dreams of becoming something in life?
There are
many more instances that make girls and women shrink their thinking. They still have problems in expressing what
they really feel. The voice never comes out
of them when it has to. However, the problem
is not with only others. The problem
lies with girls and women who put their own unseen boundaries. These are self-made
limitations. Girls and women are negatively wired and
always perceive greater problems in life. Many times problems are imaginary and
not factual. We need to look forward for
a more sensitive society which adds power to the voice of girls and women. Can we add to their strength for they are the
daughters of tomorrow who can build organizations, families, societies, a
nation and an entire universe?
