There is a stir in all quarters, from Government departments to educational institutions and the local clubs or various “samaj” or associations, when the first week of March marches in every year. The reason is the celebration of March 8 as Women’s day. The history behind this is quite interesting. The earliest record of a celebration was of the observance of “A National Women’s Day” on February 28, 1909 in the city of New York. Following this, in August 1910 an International Socialist Women’s Conference was held. Inspired by the American socialists, the German counterpart Luise Zeitz proposed the observance of an annual women’s day and other socialist leaders like Clara Zetkin backed the idea. The following year on March 19 International Women’s Day was marked by over a million people in Europe. They demanded equal rights for working women and also the right to vote, as strangely enough, the women were then deprived of this fundamental right. In 1914 Germans celebrated the day on March 8, probably as it was a Sunday, but the date has been maintained ever since worldwide. The United Nations started celebrating the day in 1975.
For over a hundred years the day has been marked as a day of celebration, demonstrations and strikes. Women have been fighting for their rights ever since they began working beyond the portals of their homes. Even today the struggle goes on as working women face discrimination in terms of wages and promotion.
A lady resource person lamented that she has regular experiences where her efficiency in work does not get due deserts because of her mild nature. From ages sexual assault is the most heinous weapon used by men against women everywhere. Gandhiji had said that a woman is truly liberated if she can walk alone on the roads at night without fear. Cases like Nirbhaya horrify us and notwithstanding the strong punitive measures that were implemented there have been umpteen “Nirbhayas” since then, perpetuated by “nirdayas”(pitiless) men. Until such men exist and proliferate, women should either train themselves in self defence or just a keep a handy spray, a la the Hindi movie Mirch Masala wherein the spunky village women used chilli powder to blind the tax collector of the colonial times who had set his eyes on a beautiful woman.
Women’s day is celebrated worldwide by honouring meritorious women, or by rallies. The governments too woo the female vote bank by announcing special schemes. Will such schemes take off or not. A couple of years ago this writer had been invited as one of the chief guests by a b-school. My counterpart was a semi-literate lady entrepreneur who took care of the catering needs of the students whilst giving employment to scores of people. The principal gave our introduction as, “one lady who provides food for the constitution and the other who provides food for the mind”. Women’s day celebrations should not be mere words of praise but pave the golden path towards “I am Generation Equality: Realising Women’s Rights”, the theme of UN for this day 2020.
