India joined rest of the world in celebrating International Women’s Day on Wednesday by organising a series of programmes, including felicitating women, who made a mark in various walks of life. While such events no doubt highlight the need for gender equality and women’s empowerment, the importance of women's emancipation cannot be limited to mere tokenism on a single day and has to be a continuous byword for every society and Government.
Every day should be a women’s day for putting an end to any sort of discrimination and achieving gender-based equality and women's emancipation. As has been rightly pointed out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi the progress of humanity is incomplete without the empowerment of women.
A major requirement for achieving women’s emancipation and empowerment is the absolute need for change in the mindset of people, particularly men. There is a tendency among men and also certain societies to treat women as being inferior to their male counterparts. There should be an end to such obnoxious thinking if countries across the globe have to advance in all fields since women constitute nearly half the population in the world.
It is unfortunate that even 69 years after Independence, we are still talking in terms of ending gender discrimination and the abhorrent practice of female foeticide. The recent incident in which 19 aborted female foetuses were found near a stream in Sangli district of Maharashtra has shocked the conscience of all right thinking people in the country. Education, Empowerment, Entitlement and Emancipation are the four Es required to usher in a society where women are treated as true equals in all spheres of life.
Many ignorant people incorrectly attribute various social evils against women in the present-day Indian society to Hindu traditions. Right from Vedic times women were respected and venerated. The best example of this is from Hindu mythology where lakshmi is the Goddess of wealth and fortune, Saraswati, the Goddess of learning and Durga, the Goddess of power.
Here, I am reminded of the famous Sanskrit Sloka, “Yatranaryastupujyante Ramante Tatra Devata, yatraitaastu napujyantesarvaastatrafalaahkriyaah,” which, roughly means where women are honored and respected, divinity dwells there and all actions are fruitless where women are not honored. In fact, India is personified as Bharat Mata and several rivers in the country are named as Saraswati, Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari and Kaveri, which shows the respect accorded to women from times immemorial. None should forget that reference to one’s native country as motherland also shows similar veneration.
Somehow in the modern civilization, the respect and veneration accorded to women in ancient times has been missing and the disturbing trend of treating women as not equals has begun. As mentioned earlier, this mindset has to change as women over the centuries have proved time and again that they are second to none in various fields-from Rani lakshmibai in warfare to the critical contributions made by women ISRO scientists in the recent world-record achieving feat by India in sending 104 satellites in a single rocket.
Apart from science and technology, Indian women have made stellar contributions to the growth and development of the nation in several other fields including politics, arts, literature, sports and education, among others. Women are now being inducted into the combat stream of the Armed Forces and the nation proudly acknowledged induction of the first three women fighter pilots.
Some of the household names in sports today are Sania Mirza, PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Sakshi Malik, Deepa Karmakar and Mary Kom, while way back in 1984, Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to climb the summit of Mount Everest. There have been many such instances where women have conquered new frontiers and broken the glass ceiling barriers.
While the United Nations began celebrating March 8 as International Women’s Day in 1975, a sea-change in the attitudes and beliefs of many sections in the Indian society is the need of the hour for Indian democracy to flourish in all its vibrant colours. Democracy would be incomplete if women are left to lag behind and are not made equal partners in the progress of the nation. As had been acknowledged by many, educating a woman would be equivalent to educating the entire family and not an individual. let us also remember that there is a ‘MAN’ in every ‘WOMAN’.
With reference to education of women, A United Nations report, based on data from 219 countries, said that for every one additional year of education for women in reproductive age, child mortality is reduced by a huge 9. 50 per cent.
Another report of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), based on a study of Fortune 500 companies earlier, had mentioned that companies with more women board directors had significantly higher financial returns.
Empowering women economically, socially and making them self-reliant and confident has been one of the core agendas of the NDA Government ever since it assumed office in May 2014.
The three flagships schemes — Beti Bachao, Beti Padao, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yoajana and Sukhanya Samvriddi Yojana — not only indicate the immense importance attached by the Narendra Modi Government in arresting the alarming decline in the child sex ratio, but also in ensuring a sustained well being of the women by preventing them from falling prey to diseases caused by cooking through firewood. Under the Ujjwala scheme, it is aimed to provide 5 crore lPG connections by 2019. Apart from causing pollution, the smoke from cooking firewood adversely affects the health of women and children. Smoke inhaled by women from unclean fuel is equivalent to burning 400 cigarettes in an hour, according to a WHO report. Under the Sukanya Samridhi Yojana, which seeks to ensure a secure future for the girl child, over one crore accounts have been opened and an amount of Rs11,000 crore has been deposited. The Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Maitritva ensures comprehensive ante-natal care to pregnant women. Another important decision taken by the NDA Government was to enhance the maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks under the maternity Benefit Act. Gender equality should be the concern of every citizen of the country and not women alone. It should also be endeavour of one and all to strive for achieving equal work, equal pay, equal property and equal empowerment for women and eliminate every form of bias against them.
While 33 per cent reservation for women in local bodies is being implemented, the time is ripe to extend reservation for women in Assemblies and Parliament. Some political parties are opposing the progressive Women’s Reservation Bill on the specious ground that reserving 33 per cent seats for women in local bodies did not serve its purpose as the husbands of women elected through such seats were ruling by proxy. It might be true in isolated cases but does not reflect the reality. Such parties should give up their anti-women stand and adopt a more open-minded approach on the issue.
Also the time has come to put an end to discrimination against women in the name of religion, custom or personal laws as in the case of triple talaq.
(The writer is Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting and Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation)