Lalit Garg
International Women's Day is celebrated every year to promote women's participation in every field and to make women aware of their rights. This year's theme is "Accelerate Action" i.e. a strong and effective push to achieve their goals. This theme tells us that women need to work very hard and fast on themselves. Women have as much contribution in the development of family, society, country and world as men. However, women do not get as much respect, opportunity and freedom as men. But in the process of building a new empowered India, women are making an unprecedented contribution to nation building by crossing the four walls of home and family. Whether it is a woman President of India, Chief Minister in Delhi and West Bengal or Finance Minister at the Center, women are playing a big role from sports to entertainment world and from politics to military and defense.
It is not about Indian or non-Indian women, but about the attitude towards her. There is a need to change this viewpoint; there is a need to end the neglect and harassment of women in the entire world. This day will be meaningful only when women are not only made a part of development but also an environment is created that puts an end to the atrocities and tragedies of tearing apart their existence and identity.
On Women's Day, women related issues like the status of women, increasing incidents of female foeticide, increasing number of boys compared to girls, illiteracy and exploitation of women in villages, safety of women, incidents of rape with women, obscene acts and especially the crimes against them should be brought into discussion once again and a meaningful environment should be created. With events like Women's Day, all the government efforts and a pang of social public awareness, a thought arises in the mind that how long will a woman remain an object of enjoyment? How long will her life remain surrounded by dangers? How long will she keep burning in the blazing fire of rape, molestation, foeticide and dowry? How long will her existence and identity keep being torn apart?
The irony is that events like Women's Day are becoming a means of misusing women instead of giving them due respect and honour. It is not my job to give an emotional expression to the infinite compassion and heart-rending pain reflected in women's lives. But even today, their condition in some societies is pitiable and worrisome. I don't know whether all women experience this situation themselves or not. But no enlightened woman can be happy with the slavery and inferiority complex of her caste. It is absolutely necessary to develop a resistance consciousness to end the meaningless traditions and feelings of inferiority that have been going on for centuries.
Until a woman's rebellious consciousness against injustice is awakened, she cannot understand her existence in the right way. As long as the body has the capacity to resist the germs of diseases, it does not get infected. But as soon as the resistance power weakens, diseases attack from all sides which not only weaken the body but also make it hollow. Therefore, the women's society has to practice living an awakened life by developing its resistance power. It has to understand its traditional importance and power. In the Vedic tradition, women have been worshipped in the form of Durga, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Buddhist followers in the form of eternal power wisdom and in Jainism in the form of Shrutdevi and Shasan Devi.
According to popular belief, by worshipping the mother, a person gets long life, fame, heaven, glory, virtue, strength, prosperity, livestock, happiness, wealth etc., then why is woman disrespected?
Women have the most honorable and respectable place in the world. Woman is the axis of the earth. She is the source of affection. She is the great temple of auspiciousness. She is the pillar of the family. She is the message of purity. The security, coolness and peace that is felt in her loving shade is not even found on the snow-clad mountains of the Himalayas.
The adornments of womankind are simplicity and purity. Ornaments made of gold, silver, diamonds; pearls etc. can only cover her natural beauty, but cannot enhance it. The combination of Satyam, Shivam Sundaram can be achieved not by artificial resources but by enhancing the infinite stage. The famous poetess Mahadevi Verma had rightly said- 'Woman is the symbol of Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram. In her, the form of woman is truth, affection is Shiva and motherly love is beautiful. Then why is the woman who possesses these unique and ideal qualities deceived and looted again and again? What kind of society is being formed in independent India, in which the attempts to snatch the freedom of women and the violent and tragic incidents related to it have shamed us all again and again.
World Women's Day is an occasion to introspect on the situations of injustice against women, to purify the ego in which the male society wants to establish its existence by pushing the superiorities into oblivion. Women's eras have been changing. Sometimes they have got opportunities to move ahead in the open directions of development with full speed, and sometimes their every step has been stopped by the snakes of doubt. Sometimes they have got full social respect, and sometimes they have been standing on the margins of society and suffering the helplessness of being a woman. Sometimes they remain at the center of the family and run the entire family, and sometimes they become inactive after being neglected and harassed in their own family. To bring harmony in these inconsistencies, women will have to move towards a definite goal. In the changing environment, modern women should always remember this sentence of Maithili Sharan Gupt - "Aanchal mein hai doodh". Save her honor and do not tarnish motherhood by committing a heinous act like foeticide. Rather, become a bridge that can join the broken, turn the halting and lift the falling. Water the tiny sprouts and plants with an ideal lifestyle so that they can prove their usefulness by becoming a tree with a hundred branches.
"Yatra poojyante naryastu tatrara namante devata" - Where women are worshipped, gods reside there. But today we see that women are being insulted everywhere.
Considering them as an object of pleasure, men are using them in their own way, which is a matter of great concern. There is a saying that women are not born, they are made and many people with orthodox beliefs consider women to be a man's crop. Due to lack of protection of law, women have been losing the battle at the end of the struggle. That is why today's women do not need a margin, but a full page. The entire page, as many men get. In ancient times, Indian women were given special respect. Countless Indian women like Sita, Sati-Savitri have proved their special place. Apart from this, during British rule, there were women like Rani Lakshmibai, Chand Bibi, etc. who rose above all their traditions and left an indelible mark on the pages of history. But with the change of time, it was seen that after many attacks on the country, the condition of Indian women also started changing. With the coming of the British and Muslim rule, the condition of Indian women became very worrying. Day by day she had to face neglect and contempt. Along with this, social evils in Indian society like Sati Pratha, child marriage, pardah system and our traditional conservatism also played an important role in making Indian women poor and weak. But now we have celebrated the Amrit Mahotsav of Independence, in the Amrit Kaal, the life of women should also become Amrit, only this can give real meaning to celebrating International Women's Day.