Thecla Pereira
“Don’t Let anyone tell you, you are weak, because you are a woman”, Mary Kom.
Every such day as ‘International Women’s Day’, should be filled with signals of hope, and stories of courage. Despite campaigns and awareness programmes some parts in our country, cultures and religions, women still continue to be in the weaker “left out” category.
On this day let us all pledge to do everything we can to overcome entrenched prejudice, support engagement and activism, and promote gender equality and women’s empowerment” (UN Secretary General Antonio Guterre. The theme for 2018 is “Time is now”.
Swami Vivekananda warned it is completely unfair to discriminate between sexes, as there is not any sex distinction in atman (soul), the soul has neither sex, nor caste nor imperfection. He suggested not to think that there are men and women, but only that there are human beings, the best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women and it is impossible to get back India’s lost pride and honour unless they try to better the condition of women. Vivekananda considered men and women as two wings of a bird, and it is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing. So, according to him, there is no chance for welfare of the world unless the condition of woman is improved. Collective action and shared responsibility for driving gender parity is what makes International Women’s Day successful.
Women don’t need to be subservient to anyone, but at the same time, men must change their mindset towards women if they are more respectful towards them, then things will change at the grass root level. It will happen slowly, but everyone has to move together. There is no limit to what we as women can accomplish. Empower a girl and you lift her, her family, her community and our world
May inner courage provide for us places on the journey where we women, can catch our breath and look freshly at ourselves, where we can feel free to be who we are meant to be, a mother a sister and a carrier of life and not to be considered as the ‘weaker, left out’ category.. Cheers to women like Khrishna Kolhi. Rise of the Dalit woman in Pakistan.
