New awakening for women rights – you want it, you fight it

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.