Thursday, March 09, 2006

Woman's Day Wishes!!!

These past few years every March 8th there is a big to do about woman's day. Hallmark, Archies and other gift and greeting cards shops mint money. The different magazines and channels wish every woman a happy women's day, I think even the president wished the women. Special offers on everything from feminine accessories to cell phones to trips abroad are offered.

hmmm! does this mean that one day every year women are given accolades and the left to her pathetic state the rest of the year?
What is the concept of a woman's day? Other than a great chance for shops to market their products?

Is it to celebrate the liberation of women? Who should women get liberated from?
Is it to show appreciation to all the things women do? is it to acknowledge that women are a great species?

I just don't get the funda behind all this. Yesterday I probably got about 20 mails wishing me. Do the people who wished me even know what they are celebrating and why.
It’s become an "in-thing", every one wish, so let’s also do it.

Have women really become equals? Is she accorded the same treatment and respect as her male counterparts? Can she travel safely in a public transport without being pawed and abused? Can she really wear anything she wants and not be termed loose or indecent?
If a girl (even one who covers herself from head to toe) is rap*d, she is still held responsible for having "asked" for it and having "seduced" the guy. Even her own relatives are not ready to understand the girl's physical, emotional and psychological torture and stand by her. she becomes a fallen woman by no fault of hers. And where the girls' life is ruined forever, the guy perpetuating this pretty much goes free in most cases, as the girl's family hardly ever complain, fearing the consequences.
It makes my heart ache to see school/college girls being pawed by the old lecherous slobs in buses and other places, and bearing it silently with tears and misery in their eyes.

Female infanticide is still prevalent. In blue collar jobs, men and women in the same cadre have different pay scales. Despite many government giving free education to girls, only a small percentage of them are allowed to enjoy this scheme. Most girls are made to stay home to learn cooking and house keeping.

Just the other day I saw an awareness program in DD. There is this 12 – 13 year old girl playing outside her house and her father comes home from outside and asks her to go inside and start learning cooking and stuff, as he has got a great proposal for her. An old lady enters and advices him not to get the girl married at such an age, instead to let her study. The state of affairs in the country is such that even the childhood of a girl child is dependent on the whims of her elders, and they have to be made aware of their responsibility.

This is not just something faced by women in developing countries; Women even in the so called developed countries face humiliation and discrimination in one form or another.

Is this what we are celebrating on March 8th?
I really don't get it... wish someone would enlighten me.



PS: Y'all might be interested in reading this article too

4 comments:

Tamanna said...

Exactly S.. Just one day in the year is alloted Woman's Day and the rest of the 364 days are men's day!! I guess its to make men aware that we indeed are special and we should be appreciated and I guess the msg should be that not just one day, treat us this way everyday of the year.... It might also be a day for the women to pat themselves on the back for reaching where they have reached now. Things have been worser rt!! This could also be a day to highlight that we are not the silent workers in the shadows we have always been mistaken for. And this could also be a day for the women to do a recheck that lots more has to be done.

I think the whole importance of woman's day is from the woman's point of view. Its for HER to celebrate for what she has done so far and what more she has set her eyes on..

U know wat! :-D We got something different from sambar rasam in our mess cos its women's day :-D


Anyway, in the mundane life that we lead here, any ripple is enough to make us happy :-D So we just went along with the spirit and pampered ourselves :)

Anonymous said...

Harini, Whatever issues u raised are very pertinent to the current status of women. But I would not completely agree with you.
Women are at liberty to whatever they like to wear, provided all women do it. If one in few million wear it then, it is bound to turn heads and men would be ogling at her. I stayed in Mylapore(A conservative locality) where I rarely found school going girls wearing jeans and T-Shirts, forget about women. In such locality heads would turn(because it is something new, like a companies trying to place their product with new type of ad). Now I stay in Thiruvanmayuir, which has lot of working women(software professionals), I find lot of women wearing western outfits which would be considered too bold to Indian standards. Even in thiruvanmayuir beach I find quite a few women wearing shorts and doing excercises and it doesn't turn heads. It is because most of the women wear those dresses.

Sanjana said...

Vikram,
Don't mistake me. I am not talking about ogling.Truthfully even gals ogle when they see a good looking guy.:-) But if a gal wearing western outfit is abused or humiliated, why is she blamed instead of the person abusing her.Remember the rape/murder of the BPO girl who was returning from a disco in chennai recently.

Z,
U R right, we have come a long way. But to make any more significant improvement the mentality of women to quietly bear their stature and knuckle down to pressure and blame each other has to change.Glad to hear Women's day atleast got good food in ur mess
:-D

Anonymous said...

IT is like so many other DAYS celebrated now.Why should one get worked up for just this day? It is simply that people want to celebrate everyday all over the year, using one excuse or other.They really are not interested about the significance behind the celebration.Its just became a fashion .. almost like wishing good morning.. to wish for all these days. It has been influenced by the western culture, where the families are mostly broken and people probably need such days to remind them of the special people in their lives