Why the mindless charade !?

"Phenomenal woman" by Maya Angelou, picture courtesy, google 

Last week was that time of the year when world once again woke up to the realization that women are indeed God's greatest gifts to humanity! A week prior to the International Womens' day and my phone started buzzing with calls and messages with "special offers", invitations for Arts performances, talks, rallies, networking events, conferences and marches for the "special day". As the day neared, the intensity and number of "woman empowerment", "proud to be woman" messages began to swell driving me absolutely nuts with irony of the whole charade! So many of those messages were from people who keep forwarding regressive, misogynistic, sexist, offensive, distasteful messages masquerading as jokes. 

The work places were not far behind! The flowers and balloons decoration, the roses, chocolates and cards and "special celebration parties" for women employees with free stalls for mehendi, makeup, fashion shows and talks on "women oriented" topics is how Womens' day summed up for most working women. Of course, a few, truly meaningful workshops/talks were organized too by many corporate companies/cultural institutes but those were restricted to the elite/select few. By large, the "Women's day" celebrations remained more like fun/party time. And that made me wonder what the hallabaloo was about really! What is the point of celebrating a day without participation of women whose voices need to be heard? How can we expect to change our social landscape unless women who matter are not part of dialogue? 

I happened to be at a movie theatre at the mall on 8th March and when I greeted security women for the "Womens' day", their response was surprisingly indifferent. I am sure for many women like them the day was just like any other. How do we address the real issues of women with such dichotomies existing almost in all spheres of life? 

Don't get me wrong. I am all for celebration, gender equality and women empowerment. My problem is diluting purpose of the day to nothing more than sheer tokenism. It doesn't serve much purpose except granting 'feel good factor" for our collective conscience. A day that has garnered immense significance in the human history calls for critical planning, commitment and sharp focus on gender parity, addressing issues of gender politics, discrimination and danger faced by women world over. 

Every single day we read about inhuman acts of sexual perversion, abuse, kidnapping, rape, incest, burning, acid attacks, dowry deaths, and so many gruesome acts of oppression of women, across all categories and class that such news sound very routine.

We don't like to admit openly but the truth of our social reality is in female infanticides being devoured by sewage from rural as well as global metro cities. Our reality is in charred bodies in dowry and tandoor deaths. Our reality is, painfully disturbing rotting stench of female foetus and the hanged bodies of "honour killings". Of course, gender politics and the comprehension of equality and humanism needs to be addressed urgently today. But, changing reality needs changing mindsets, attitudes and behaviour.

  

One doesn't need to explore in to the interiors of the country to realize that caveman's mentality is still intact and the balance of power is off in our regressive, patriarchal society, even in the urban cities amidst our homes and work places. We need to ask tough questions about what are we doing to educate and change deeply ingrained conditioning that leads to discrimination and gender bias? 

There is dire need to integrate the voices that reflect our ground realities and raise the issues to local, national and global level, to the extent that they become movements, helping harness influence over policy/decision makers and protect womens' rights.  Unless we make a conscious effort to work towards making each day count as womens' day, the dangerous disconnect will continue to erode our social fabric. 

There is no point in making chest thumping proclamations about women empowerment. Let it reflect in our actions in our homes, immediate social circles and work places. Let those efforts build each other and if that truly happens, each day will be a celebration!