Women Empowerment in India

Free Me: A Cry and a Call of a Woman

Vaishali (Ghaziabad), March 10: “Oh, my friends, open your eyes, open your ears...it’s happening everywhere! This is the  naked truth, a bitter reality, a question to be pondered”, was  the message by the street-play team led by Jommy Thotiyan today at NISCORT near here highlighting the plight of women in India and the need for emancipation.

When the world observed ‘Women’s Day’, India woke to the stark reality that Radhika Tanwar,  a 20 years old student of Ram Lal Anand College in South Delhi gunned down in broad day-light on March 8, 2011. ‘Delhi is the most unsafe place for women’ is the refrain heard from all quarters after umpteen events of eve-teasing, molestation, rape, honour killing and what not.

The World Around programme on the topic ‘Empowerment of Women in India’ at NISCORT consisted of the street-play and a talk by  Ms. Chinnamma Jacob, the President of Council of Catholic Women in India. “Learn to love and respect yourself. The first step is always self-empowerment”, suggested Ms. Jacob. She further narrated the sad story of every woman in India: that she is discriminated, enslaved and dehumanised! “A woman is always looked upon as a weaker sex to be exploited”, she lamented.

The saying- ‘behind every successful man there is a woman’ is true. But the woman has been deprived of her due place and privilege. The present equation which is heavily loaded towards man has to change. Woman needs to be empowered, involved in the process of decision-making, contribute in very field of life: family, society, politics, economics, etc.

The solution to the problems is empowerment and emancipation of woman. And man has to become part of this endeavour. It is not through competition but collaboration that it is going to succeed. In the discussion that followed the street-play and the talk by Ms. Jacob dealt largely on the aspects of causes of women discrimination. While it was pointed out that women and men though can interchange their roles, it is the call of nature that they stick to their traditional roles. Women are seldom appreciated and often undervalued. Only love and respect to each other can ultimately bring about egalitarian society. Swami Vivekananda had rightly predicted, "The best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women".