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| In defense of women, their rights | | |
There is one special day which is celebrated with resolutions and convictions once every year but observed in contempt throughout the year. While writing or speaking about the rights of the women we can go to any length but when it comes to according them the status and liberty they deserve in the society we look the other way. We are talking about Women’s Day that falls on March 8. In our city and elsewhere in the state the day was marked with debates and symposiums on rights of women. In different societies across the world there are different ways of observing this day. It is well to remember, however, that since the beginning of the twentieth century the notion of setting aside one day in the year to commemorate the contribution of women arose in acknowledgment of the pathbreaking idea that ordinary women are equal makers of history along with the other sex, men. The crucial acknowledgment was not a handout, however. Landmark public struggles of women textile workers in the United States for relief from abysmal conditions of work and for equal remuneration as men for the same work done came in the early years of modern capitalism which could no longer assume that an important section of the workforce could be made to toil for less than the average wage. Subsequently, the idea of equality for women became an important component of the growth of various strands of the socialist ideology and their struggles in Europe. The suffragette movement in about the same period in Europe lent the issue of women’s equality greater urgency. Outside of Europe and North America, women in many countries, such as India, participated in anti-colonial movements, laying important future claims for themselves. Very many of these, particularly in the spheres of domestic life and social culture, failed to achieve any serious degree of realisation. Nevertheless, the demands raised became a part of the record, and began topping agendas. Since then, the feminist movement, which commenced in the mid-1960s in advanced capitalist countries, has had an echo around the world, although it currently appears to be in a state of decline. Whatever the successes and failures of the women’s movement, there is no denying that the issues raised by it entered the lexicon of rights and struggles around the world. The UN Charter, signed in San Francisco in 1945, became the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental human right. Today’s edition of this newspaper, through news reports and articles, reflects on important issues concerning women in our country. Whatever the state of the discussion on the economic, social, and political rights of women in India, irony cannot but mark the observance of International Women’s Day in India this year. Months preceding it have seen numerous assaults on women in public spaces, most notably in the state of Karnataka and its capital city Bangalore, which are thought to be in the forefront of modernist development in this country; Bangalore indeed emerging on the world map in recent years as an important centre of the computer and information technology industry, among the fastest growing sectors of the Indian economy. Nothing less than Bangalore’s image as a cosmopolitan centre, and India’s as a tolerant society (even if a patriarchal one), is at stake. A riposte, which alone can salvage the reputation, must come from women and from men. That is a fitting thought for this day.
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