March 8th views

March 8^th, 2011 made into the history for its news of assassination of a female student Radhika near her college in Delhi, India, and another incident in Australia where a woman was subjected to attempted harassment & other similar crimes against women elsewhere in the world. While this was a regular affair in daily news, the day also marked the celebrations of international women’s day all over the world. While the entire world celebrated to honour every woman in this world, I decided to talk to the women themselves-to find out about their views, to find out what they think that is wrong institutionally for such incidents to be occurring day and again every day, to find out what changes they wish to see in the society or have anything they like or dislike about the current proceedings in the society.
This entry of my blog is a synopsis of my conversations with them.
While all of the interviews given to me were by women from India, one friend of mine, Nahed from Saudi, spoke about the need for equality for women in their country and said to have set goals in her life for bringing about a change to the situation in her nation and dreams to see women equal participants in all aspects of life, be it from education to politics.
The Indian friends of mine on the other hand spoke about problems that are still been prevailing in the country since decades ,even though forcefully banned by enforcement of various laws for protection of women , for example the dowry system regarding which Prateeksha from Kerala narrated on how she always wonders about the impact education has-on minds of people when she hears her well educated friends conversing about the amount of dowry they would expect once they decide to get married and also told me about complaints made by her female friends to her about the issues pertaining to dowry during their marriage. She urged for an end to the issue and questioned the ability of law for complete eradication of social evils like the dowry system. Well there certainly has to be an end to all social evils in the society and mere 'law' alone cannot solve the worries of women, the change should start from the minds and mindset of educated people themselves and should be carried upon to everyone else in the country. Added to these comments were lines from Indu from Hyderabad, who insisted that women should come to support of every other women in this world and proposed that every mother in the society should educate their children to respect all women and urge them to avoid dowry and refrain from being involved in other anti social crimes against women and creating problems in the society.
While I was questioning how mere making laws are ineffective in bringing a permanent change to the problems in lives of women- without change in the state of minds of people, Sowmya from Visakhapatnam urged for a government run rehabilitation home or a support home for women who are subjected to domestic violence. As most of the women in India are dependent on their married partner’s income, they have no choice but to face the violence at home, hence if there exists a support that is guaranteed by government, then there lies a confidence in women to either fight back or willingly and safely leave home for peace to these rehabilitation homes. Every woman all over India and world should be made aware of their rights and laws which they can exercise when required and education is an important tool for spreading awareness about laws and rights, and another friend of mine told me about the important role education plays in instilling confidence in women and make them stronger and independent, and also strongly recommended quality and compulsory education for every girl child in India.
Well due to various reasons and time constraints, I got to interview only a few women but they pretty much covered all the crucial-important needs and aspects of the society.
1) Better, improved & more supportive laws , 2) education for all women , 3)unity amongst one and all and above all,4)change in attitude & mindset of people are the solutions for all problems all over the world - one has to realize all human beings are equal and that each & everyone of them deserves as much from life as the other one gets.
References: 1) //Wikipedia: International Women's Day (IWD), originally calledInternational Working Women’s Day, and is marked on March 8th every year. Nowadays this is a major day of global celebration of women. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and social achievements. //