Crime Today News
By Kumkum Chadha
When German activist Clara Zetkin tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day, way back in 1910, she had not imagined that it would be one that would remain frozen in Time. Zetkin had then proposed that every year in every country, there should be a celebration on Women’s Day to press for their demands.
For someone who fought for women’s rights, Zetkin’s legacy was controversial. It was also contrary to the feminist movements of the sixties and seventies that excluded men from women’s movements. As against this, Zetkin’s philosophy underscored the need for men and women to work together to achieve women’s liberation.
Some hundred years on, Zetkin may be turning in her grave because women have not moved beyond the one-day tokenism of coming together on International Women’s Day.
What started as National Women’s Day in the US in February 1909 shaped up, a year later, as International Women’s Day in Copenhagen Denmark. This was in response to Zetkin’s call to set aside a day to hammer demands for equal rights for women.
Even though International Women’s Day was marked for the first time in March 1911, it was not till another two years that it got a date: March 8. It is a date etched in Time: one that is constant and unlikely to be erased.
It is all very well to mark significant dates. By that measure, March 8 as International Women’s Day fits the bill. But one needs to stop here: divest it off its grandeur and ask: What is one celebrating?
Is it subservience? Is it subjugation? Or is it that women continue to be pushed out by men? Should we celebrate or rue the fact that not much has changed since Zetkin’s call?
Had things panned out Zetkin’s way, March 8 would have been significantly different in current times. What was initiated in 1910 should have by 2025, given a level playing field to women. Far from it: the disparity stares one in the face: men continue to dominate and women’s fight for rights is elusive.
None of this, calls for a celebration. If anything, March 8 should be observed as a day for a reality check: it should be to take stock of how much women have lost out to men every year, how Zetkin’s call has failed to achieve what it set out to do; how woman have, in one sense devalued themselves, by celebrating one day in a year set aside for them a century ago?
Equally, women need to step up: they need to move away from empty talk; they need to grab opportunities and charter their own course rather than depending on men to make way for them. They need to look beyond that one day, in this case March 8, and shout out every minute till they are heard in a world which seems to have turned deaf to their needs and aspirations. They need to flag when men stand proxy for them in positions of power and influence.
Take for instance India’s Chhattisgarh where half a dozen men took oath for their wives on March 3, this year. In focus was a village Paraswara, some 138 kilometers from the state capital Raipur. Six women were elected panchayat members. But when they were to take oath, it was their husbands who filled in for them. Had a video not gone viral, this incident would, perhaps, have passed off as “routine”.
Men fielding their wives as candidates is not uncommon. Bound by the 50 percent women reservation rule, men have no option except to push their wives’ candidature. Once they win, they are relegated to the background and the men take over. Of the six men who took oath, four admitted that they were keen on contesting the elections, but were compelled to field their wives as candidates since seats were reserved for women.
Ironically, Paraswara is part of Pandariya constituency which is represented by a woman MLA, Bhavna Bohra. And it does not stop here. Bohra belongs to the BJP: the party which marked the International Women’s Day by launching a leadership programme for women representatives in panchayati raj institutions. The BJP-led government flagged the Day as a national event.
On his part, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that selected women would take over his social media account on March 8 to share their experiences and journeys on the NaMo App Open Forum: the Prime Minister’s official mobile Application.
While on Prime Minister Modi, one must grant that his government, since its first term, has focused on women. It was he, who from the ramparts of Red Fort, had spoken about building toilets for women; it was his government that helped women open bank accounts; be co-owners or owners of houses under a government scheme and more importantly provide LPG connections in homes to free women from smoke filled kitchens. While on the last, Modi had touched a chord when he spoke of haunting images of his mother’s eyes blinded by kitchen smoke. Equally, women are indebted to him for supporting the Women’s Reservation Bill: a long-standing demand. It was during Modi’s tenure that the Bill was passed reserving one third seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies. Even though the implementation is linked to the next delimitation exercise, a beginning has been made.
March 8 is only one part of the story; it is one that has an international footprint and thus grabs eyeballs. But there is also an India story: one that predates March 8.
India observes a National Women’s Day to commemorate freedom fighter Sarojini Naidu’s birth anniversary. The poet- turned-political activist, Naidu’s contribution in India’s freedom struggle is immense. That apart, as a woman there are several firsts to her credit: the first governor of the United Provinces, now Uttar Pradesh, in 1947; the first Indian woman to be president of Indian National Congress and so on and so forth. It was Naidu who linked the liberation of India to liberation of women.
Therefore, were the women in India to do justice to history, they should pay obeisance to Naidu, revisit her struggle and recall her famous lines: “When there is oppression, the only self-respecting thing is to rise and say this shall cease today because my right is justice”.
Equally till women get their due, February 13 and March 8 should be days of introspection rather than celebration.
—The writer is an author, journalist and political commentator
📰 Crime Today News is proudly sponsored by DRYFRUIT.CO – A Brand by eFabby Global LLC
Design & Developed by Yes Mom Hosting
