I am a woman. A woman with desires and aspirations, with
strengths and limitations. I am competitive, I stand in the board room with men
today, listen to them and argue with them and have even out shone them in many
respects. I learn from them and also teach them. For the society to take note,
I even earn more than many of them. I sincerely undertake my duties as a wife,
a mother, a daughter and a daughter in law. I offer my daily prayers for the
wellness of all. I laugh with my family and at troubled times cry in a dark
corner. I am the source of love and care for my family, I am the source of
positivity and energy for my friends, I am the source of patience and
compassion for my colleagues and I am the source of goodness and wellbeing for all
my fellow human beings. But in spite of all that, I am a woman. A woman who is
vulnerable because of her misplaced belief that she is living in a world which
reciprocates her goodness.
The recent incident in Delhi has shaken the entire youth,
men and women alike, to stand for woman rights, yet again. History has it,
together we have fought for human rights. We eliminated the Sati system, we
eliminated child marriage, we have fought for gender equality for long now. And
look where we have reached. We now have 33% reservation in many bodies and
organizations including the Parliament, we are getting equal opportunities of
education, we are getting high paying jobs in multi-national companies and we
are getting married at our willful age. Looks like everything is falling in
place. But look closely, is it really? Are we still safe to enjoy our rights?
From being raped by policemen in police station (refer Mathura rape case) to
being raped by own father in law within the four walls (refer Imrana rape
case), where are we safe now? And to say the least, what trust will we have on
our government if we cannot be safe in the national capital?
We live in a society where we offer our prayers to Durga and
Laxmi and fear the Kali, yet we are not able to respect the dignity of women. I
myself have been audience (observed as well as victimized at times) to many
cases of eve teasing and grab-hit-flee and yet, time and again, I fail to understand
the mentality of such men who are not able to respect the sanctity of
womanhood, in spite of being born to a female and giving birth to a female. I
wonder what I as a female can do to prevent this from happening? I have a
voice, I can raise it for sure. But it has to be loud enough that this entire
class of insensitive inhuman creatures hear it and fear it. Let us all take an
oath to object, revolt, raise voice against any indecent act towards woman
around us. For somewhere it might be our mother, sister, wife or daughter
facing the same ordeal. I urge all my friends, male and female, to stand for
this cause. For I can only hope that the government will do something concrete to
avail women of their rightful place in the society.
