Avanti Sopory
Here went by another 8th March. After all the ritualism and jingoism, International Women’s Day comes to a halt and gets parked till the next year. And a small voice inside dreads how many more women will walk up the altar to sacrifice for the cause; before it finds real meaning amongst the parochial minds. Build up to IWD, started with a deluge of Whatapp messages, text messages, commercials on newspaper and print, Facebook posts and all the unthinkable means of communication. Humble start has now become a significant date on calendars across the globe. Like all the previous years, women’s day celebrations entailed the following offers for the women –
Restaurants and pubs – Discounted rates for women’s day and ladies night.
Saloons and spas – freebies and discounts on all services
Departmental stores – special rates and free essential supplies
Local transport – free travel from destination ‘a’ to destination ‘b’
These are some of the special ‘women’s day’ offers dished out to allure women customers and make them feel important on this day. After all the ‘isms’ killed the central theme of the original idea, now all the ‘days’ are killing the main theme of the purpose it was created for. Do these discounts mean that women are some wannabes, who are always on a look-out for freebies? Or are they genuinely meaning to make women feel elevated? If later is the case, then why restrict the extraordinary status only for the women’s day and why value this status in monetary terms? Does commercial success mean the actual success of a day earmarked to honour an event or a memory?
Women’s day has evolved beyond the one-day rainfall discounts offered at every next shop. Getting a discount on a gym membership has lost its sheen after the uncountable gender biases women face in everyday life. Which woman would like to be treated like a queen on one day and be ill-treated for the rest three hundred and sixty four days?
Imagine if the above offers go beyond the earmarked day and the society respects women in different ways.
Restaurants and pubs – Discounted rates for husband’s who pitch in the household jobs, along with their wives.
Saloons and spas – freebies and discounts for men who try to emulate the sacrifices done by their mothers during their growing up days. It will do well for the half men in the house and the coming generations.
Departmental stores – special rates for husbands who have mastered the art of multitasking from all the women in their lives.
Local transport – free travel for men who do not judge the precursor car at traffic lights and do not yell “I knew that must be a lady driver”.
Imagine what a humungous awareness campaign this would create. In pieces but it can. Changes are not a computer certificate course of a week of ten days. They take time to evolve and impact. Unfortunately, the clarion call by the founders has still not got a conscientious attention from the target audience. It still uphill. And it’s progressing.
Next repetitive tootling on women’s day is pay equity, gender parity, promotion equity and no glass ceiling at work for women. Despite all the big talk, how much of this is really working is anybody’s guess. #BreakTheBias, commercial by Titan Raga brings out an apt message about the preconditioned notions people have about women at work place. Stereotypes have to be dealt with and nipped at the bud throughout the year, not just on 8th of March.
With all the social, print and electronic media making a big deal out of women’s day in the urban and semi-urban areas, the larger chunk of women who live in the rural areas, may still not know that they were born as human beings, not just as women. Does anyone campaign to educate them about their rights? Aren’t the guys selling discounts on IWD doing a partial job? Shouldn’t the endeavour spread beyond the city realms? After all how many urban folks are technology savvy? More than spreading the message, 8th March has turned into a battle ground of business and marketing opportunities. The central theme of women rights has got diluted in the pitching fracas.
Raising women empowerment is not an issue restricted only to television panel discussions, but like they say charity begins at home –
– Educate, teach and sensitise children at home. Raise the importance of respecting girls in the family and in the schools and colleges.
– Young boys should be encouraged to pitch in the family chores, thereby extending a helping hand to mother, sisters or grandmothers at home.
– Earning by the man and cooking by the woman is an old saying, which holds no meaning in the current societal context. Cooking doesn’t make the man any less a boy but being indifferent to a woman’s woes will make him a less gentleman.
– Schools have the strongest infrastructure to inculcate or reiterate good learning’s into the children. They should optimise and push gender sensitivity into their malleable minds.
Even after assigning a date to an important initiative, society does not get sensitised, then women have to get aggressive in spreading the awareness. The messages have to be in black and white and should be ‘on the face’. Discussions, debates and issues can be uncomfortable for the larger audience but unless they are not spread out and drilled into the linear thought process there is no way we can see a change. It’s good to celebrate, but it’s important to take the date beyond the celebration tokenism.
Attaining women rights, liberation and equality is a process. It will not happen over a free cup of coffee. A whole generation, irrespective of gender has to come forward in the movement. Inch by inch and step by step, society and more so men have to learn to accept women as human beings first. They demand honour and dignity as any other human being or living being would need yatra naryastu pujyante ramante tatra devata is a strong message from our own scriptures, written thousands of years ago, but looks like everyone needs a refresher course on it.
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