International Women’s Day is celebrated every year on March 8. While we are happy to see the literacy rate among women in India rise and welcome women leaders in various fields, the facts state that female foeticide is still prevalent in our country and dowry demands and harassment of women are not uncommon. Taking a few steps collectively and proactively will help us improve and empower ourselves.
Dignity
Every human being is significant and has to be treated with dignity. There is a percentage of women who still accept odds here; it does not make sense to listen politely, wipe off tears silently, or ignore when being abused. And worse is advising others as though there is nothing wrong in being ill-treated and accepting it as a sacrifice for the sake of smooth running of family is the best solution. Please remember that when your children grow up seeing you being abused, their mindset may change and they may not identify the role you played in their up-bringing.
Also, peace in the family is possible when all acknowledge your importance and give you the due role in making decisions. With that in place, we women will also start thinking of ways to bring up ourselves and family, which will be helpful to this society.
Responsibilities
While a lot of importance has been given to women’s rights, I wonder how many of us ever realised that we have the responsibility of taking care of our parents. The concept of a small family has been in India for more than three decades. Many parents do not have sons and have educated their daughter(s) well. Our parents have brought us up with love, affection and care and we are obliged to support our parents in their old age.
Some women prefer to be unemployed for the benefit of family even before marriage; others take a temporary break from employment to provide significant attention to children. Regardless of whether we have a source of income or not, it is our duty to look after our parents.
Marital expenses
The expenses for education are the same for men and women. Please give a thought to parents who have only daughters. They spend the same amounts of money to bring up and educate their children. Further, they have to spend a lot for their marriage and also have sufficient savings to take care of themselves after retirement.
While a lot has changed and is a-changing in our society, it is high time some reform happens in this arena. This would become impossible without the co-operation of each and every woman in marriageable age. They need to take an oath that they will marry only when the expenditure is being shared equally between the families of the bride and the bridegroom. When this becomes a practice it would indirectly benefit girl children in many ways.
The zeal to achieve
I had noticed some fellow-students not being passionate about studies and not developing areas of interest. They would give the justification that they would be married soon after graduation. This way they lose time and energy that can be used to discover themselves.
Marriage is not a barrier to reach our goals. Each of us has to decide what we want to do, take time to dig out on our area(s) of interest and find time to focus on it and achieve. Remember, the feel obtained when realising goals is unparalleled, hence crave for it.
Ethics and mutual respect
With changes in lifestyle, in certain situations it is crucial to think twice before we decide, and act ethically. Also we have to respect and recognise women achievers by acknowledging the fact that accomplishments are possible only through diligence.
Let each one of us understand and appreciate our talents, discover the hidden ones and continuously dream and achieve.
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