We, Indians, are known for fun-loving sentiments. Invite them to congregations to discuss issues and problems that affect lives adversely, they would say “wastage of time; nothing good can happen.” But wherever there is fun, frolic and laughter guaranteed, they rush in chaotic crowds. The Women’s Day was celebrated, not observed. Men and women would look up for the fun part and the good food, but if asked to say why the gathering and that they should share ideas about possible solutions, they would take offence, call the answer seekers names and vanish after hurling abuses. No wonder, most of so-called women leaders too wouldn’t know much about the big Day.
In the West, the International Women’s Day (IMD) was first observed after 1977 when the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed March 8 as the UN Day for women’s rights and world peace. Historically, however, the first International Women’s Day was observed onMarch 19 in 1911. The date was chosen to commemorate the Prussian King’s promise to introduce ‘women voting’ in 1848 though the king never kept his promise.
Women began a strike for “bread and peace” in Russia resulting in the death of over two million Russian soldiers in war. Women continued to strike until four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate and a provisional Government granted women the right to vote on a March 8. Hence March 8 chosen. The purple and white logo of the IWD features the symbol of Venus symbolising female sex. Twenty-seven countries recognise the IMD an official holiday including Afghanistan, Belarus, Cambodia, Cuba, Russia and Uganda. The Indian Government doesn’t seem to know this. Since 1996, the UN keeps assigning a theme to every annual IMD. This year’s theme was ‘Pledge for Parity’. (See the box)
Hopefully, women will rise themselves appropriately and also provoke men folks to become adequately sensitised to the issues of women.
4 Interestingly, in the last few days, highly energetic young people have been making a great deal of noise about some Raahgiri to be celebrated like the Carnivals in Germany. The social media, particularly the deadly WhatsApp and Facebook, have been killing sleep and hunger for quite some time and are likely to do more damage in times to come. Publicised as a great fun festival on roads, Raahgiri was celebrated with all known items that are performed at carnivals: dance, band music, DJ, magic show, painting, athletics, karate and so forth. In Puri and Bhubaneswar of Odisha, competitive spirit turned people mad. But neither the organisers nor the people were clear about what the whole thing is and what the prime objective is.
Gurgaon, the Millennium city of India, organises Raahgiri Day every Sunday. This is a unique concept where a section of a street or road is kept closed for cars, scooters and other automobiles for fixed hours. It is then open for the public exclusively for walking, jogging, cycling, skating, exercising, etc.
Gurgaon is the first Indian city to hold this event, followed by Delhi just recently. The name Raahgiri has been coined using two words, ‘Raah’ and ‘Giri.’ ‘Raah’ means a path to reach a goal, and ‘Giri’ comes from ‘Gandhigiri’ which is a colloquial expression popularised by the 2006 Hindi film lage Raho Munna Bhai to refer to the tenets of Gandhism. The organisers of this event believe that sooner or later, it will encourage people to leave their cars, get out of their homes, get moving and promote physical activities at least for one day in a week.
The Raahgiri Day is in the same line as Ciclovia, an event that started in Bogotá, Colombia in 1976 and later spread to other countries. Ciclovia in Colombia means ‘open streets’ barring automobiles to allow cyclists and pedestrians to use road space as they like for a fixed period of time on Sundays when millions of Bogotá residents enjoy a full day of around 70 miles of automobile-free street. India took 37 years to wake up at Gurgaon, which first observed Raahgiri Day on November 17, 2013 with over 20,000 people participating. The event was initiated by a team of NGOs including India Cycle Service, I am Gurgaon, Pedal Yatri and EMBARQ India and Road Safety Officers to promote and encourage car-free Sundays. The event became a smash hit and slowly spread to other cities. Every Sunday, a particular street or a section of a road is kept free of motor vehicles particularly cars in the morning between 7 am and 12 pm.
It’s for sure, most Raahgiri organisers are fun-crazy guys whose main intention is to remain in news and be known as achievers. That’s indeed a great desire in young people, but slugging at something without clarity of objective will lead them nowhere. Raahgiri as an event is essentially meant to provoke people against use of fossil fuel and polluting automobiles whose number in the recent years has risen alarmingly. More importantly, people are extremely keen to feel safe on roads. Hence, the ingenious idea of occupying specific locations periodically as private property by barring polluting vehicles from entry and promoting, encouraging as well as aggressively rewarding pedestrians and bicyclists, and now the electric rickshaw operators. To protect the environment and people on roads, the novel idea of protesting peacefully against indiscriminate fossil fuel use is the main objective. Violent agitations and striking work on weekdays would mar people’s property and peace and be seen as unlawful. The Raahgiri experts must know at least this much.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)