Women, Violence and Danger

A recent news item in the Reuters (factbox: The world's most dangerous countries for women), is a tumultuous testimony of the onslaught against women that still exists in many parts of the world. It is a lamenting yet noteworthy issue that despite a sociopolitical voyage for gender equality, women’s rueful plight remains a dreary discussion. Some of the countries that rank the highest in this predicament are Afghanistan, Congo, Pakistan, India, and Somalia. The brutality against women in these countries includes illiteracy and economic discrimination, forced marriages including child marriages, sexual violence and female genital mutilation, honor killings, domestic servitude besides human trafficking. The report suggests that 1 in 11 women in Afghanistan die of childbirth, while 57% of pregnant Congolese women are anemic. Also, 87% of women in Afghanistan are illiterate, while a mere 7.5% women hold parliamentary seats in Somalia, the horn of Africa. Moreover, 40 innocent Congolese women are raped everyday, while 95% of Somalian girls and women are put through genital mutilation. Not far beyond in the race, a 1000 Pakistani girls and women face honor killings, while 50 million infant girls are missing on account of infanticide and feticide in the religiously devout India. Many women in these countries experience physical assault and battery, unfortunately as customary to rustic traditions and the predominant culture of male monarchy. The above statistics may appear antediluvian, but it is a fresh perspective on the existing, and ever exacerbating indignation against women.

What may seem even more depressing is the bitter truth that majority of population in these nations is either unaware of such violent and life threatening tribulations, or perhaps is least bothered until the fire engulfs their own turf. Many times, the victims of these crimes are forced to bear abuse repeatedly and are intimated if they urge to take an action against it. Other times, victims’ emotional vulnerability becomes a vantage point to keep them in a state of denial like a sitting duck for the perpetrators. Also, the fact that some of these countries are an ongoing war zone, and lack a central government system, or are partially ruled by the militia, further extinct the possibilities for social change and investment in women empowerment. Moreover, the influence of theocratic law in some of these countries makes economic reforms preposterous. In addition, incessant absolute poverty and high levels of corruption are some other depriving factors for change. For instance, in India, where women’s economic participation and educating the girl child is on the rise, the country’s social systems appear unsuccessful in impeding female feticide. More importantly, social issues like education, women’s rights, and child marriages are rarely significant as far as political manifestation is concerned. Mostly theses issues appear like a small figurine in the electoral campaigns that often turn gray with time. So, if this is the feat of change, then we sure are in for a failure!

Copyright (c) 2010 - present Dharbarkha.blogspot

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International Women's Day - Femininity Is Identity

“In the ambrosial chattels of my dream,
I was born in the mountains, grew up to frisk in the plains
and slide on the oceans to caress the ecstasy of the winds.

In my trance, I had the liberty to effectuate my longings
propel my intentions to veer myself of fears. But angst
I awoke to discern the vagary of my thoughts to
actual, a truth of 'as is' and the aphorism of my state.

In the tangibility of existence, I am far away from the absolute,
gripped so tight in the shackles of confinement and control
and tabooed to lift off my veil.

I am the journey of femininity and my life is a biography of
emotions. In my silence I am auctioned for beauty, in my
hustle I am trafficked for wealth and in felicity I am beguiled
of love.

As a little girl I am forbidden to emancipate, in my youth
I am in a peril of assault. As a co-worker, I cope with harassment
and as a daughter-in-law; I am asked if the gold that I brought in my
marriage is authentic or fake.

My saga is an unending face-off with time and my name
holds the aura of my gender. I am the spirit of a woman and my
femininity bears the quintessence of my identity”. - Barkha Dhar

These verses are my own, a composition dedicated to International Women’s Day, which celebrates the liberation and the elevation of global women force socially, economically and intellectually. From its inception as a revolutionary movement in 1908 to United Nations subsequent role of signing the charter in 1945 to promote gender equality, March 8Th has seen evolution of women’s identity as both conspicuous and crucial for social change. With massive about face in the plight of women through education and equal opportunity, International Women’s Day has unequivocally advocated, identified and emancipated sagacity of the female gender. As a catalyst of vicissitude, this day has induced energy and hope in each woman to surpass the dictum of gender abuse and bias. Despite mindful cognizance and global recognition of women in Academia, Business and Industry, Science and Technology, Society and Politics, Arts, Media and Entertainment, Religion and Spirituality, femininity’s   docile face nonetheless bemoans oppression.  

According to Richard Robbins, Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, “Women do two-thirds of the world’s work, receive 10 percent of the world’s income and own 1 percent of the means of production.” According to UNFPA, “Women currently constitute over two-thirds of the illiterate adult population worldwide. They also represent 70 per cent of the planet's poor — a reality that became more severe after the recent global economic crisis”. United Nations Development Fund for Women states, “About 22 million were expected to have lost their jobs in 2009”. Also, United Nations statistics on violence against women reveals, “globally, at least one in three women and girls is beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime. 4 million women and girls are trafficked annually and So-called "honor killings" take the lives of thousands of young women every year, mainly in North Africa, Western Asia and parts of South Asia”. With such facts and figures, claiming that most women share equal rights and are empowered is a statement that I would take with a grain of salt. These statistics speak loud of the fragile sheath that a woman is ensconced under and her potent cue for change, a transformation not just for a fraction of us but for the entity of femininity. Accentuating individuality in each woman locally and internationally is no more need of the hour but a quest of an era. 

Recognizing women’s rights as a core of a nation’s political and social agenda is a means to an allusive beginning. However gender equality and role parity is also an individual responsibility. It starts with reconnecting to self and to similar others in the community, family and society. Sharing common goals and driving developmental motives collectively are some ways we can accredit ourselves with opportunities and achievements. An understanding of the fact that there is a thin line between being empowered and feeling empowered is initiating action in the right direction. Reinventing ourselves at any age or through any experience in life inspires us to aggregate against gender violence and discrimination in order to brace a progressive demeanor. Institutionalizing such progress as our mission can help us think alike and feel alike, a trait that break evens our emotions and ambitions and a pledge that conjoins us. Reinstating this grandeur time and again and not just today can rupture any social impediments that cease the rightful apportion of freedom, fairness and justice among genders. To begin such journey, redesigning our destiny indeed shall be an expedient step.

Copyright (c) 2009-present Dharbarkha.blogspot
Photo Courtesy: dryicons.com

Lijjat’s Lineage of Change

My story is inspired by an educational tour during my school years. The story dates back to 1959 when education and empowerment was a voice for the few. Men were bread earners while women stayed indoors. That year, one-day the dawn broke over a small town in Gujarat (western India) with colors of rainbow bright and clear. The day marked history of empowerment through sisterhood that started a lineage of change, a livelihood for many today. Lijjat, as commonly known was conceived by a group of 7 women who came together under a single roof to make and sell poppadoms (http://www.lijjat.com). A home venture then, Lijjat is a successful business model today that has turnaround the lives of many illiterate and poor women. Lijjat accounts for an all women establishment of 46000 across 62 branches in towns, cities and rural regions in India today.

As I unfold this story further, I remember the slums of Mumbai where life is a struggle day in and day out. Making ends meet is a challenge for most women. Lijjat has offered some of these women a regular income, thus evolving them from a state of needs to desires. Most Lijjat women today are their family’s bread earners and have been successful in providing education to children with better amenities and an improved quality of life. Lijjat’s distinctive feature of sisterhood is not based on employment but a lifetime sister membership where each woman is related to other irrespective of her religion or state boundary. A unit that started with 7 has liberated thousands of women from their shells over past decades. Mothers, wives and daughters work in unison for Lijjat and have proved to be an asset. They have collectively redefined women empowerment and contributed to India’s cottage industries development.

Lijjat is a savior for many poor women. It has made them independent, as also taught them to be interdependent. Some young Lijjat sisters today are educated and uphold managerial roles. Lijjat as yesterday’s concept is a belief today and a hope tomorrow. It has proved that poverty or illiteracy may be bottlenecks but it is our will to succeed that deems challenges as opportunities and not adversities. It has proved that women may be born with half the sky but their endurance is their continuing effort to evolve and exist. This endurance is their strength and capacity to embrace newer roles and to multitask, a lesson that everyone can be enterprising provided we open up to change.

Lijjat operates under an open management system where all sister members share equal rights. It embodies the values of mutual respect and bonding, a conviction that actually birthed Lijjat. Truly and deeply, Lijjat has contributed to the cause of enabling women to a free and fair expression. As I end now, I am unwrapping Lijjat snack bought from an Indian store while sitting thousand of miles away from India.

My write up Lijjat’s Lineage of Change that was posted in the New York Times Half the sky contest.
Copyright (c) 2009-present Dharbarkha.blogspot

Photo Courtesy: BBC

She is a woman : A poem by Barkha Dhar

“In this sacred heart is the home of burnt desires
a garden of fake flowers
a life glazed with pain
so immense and so drained
Every knock on this heart awaits a change
to see my world shine forever and ever again

She is voice of a mother, a wife, she is a lover and so much more
for she is a woman before her garb of roles
The truth however unfolds the fact
she is living in a world so dogmatic and whack
Change for her is so opaque, so unfair and so fake
She is independent and manifested yet is abandoned and evicted
for she is a woman forgotten and inflicted

Much has been done over the years
to stop oppression to wipe her tears
She still has a toll tearing her soul
for she is a woman so beautiful and bold
In this ravage she is searching for life
a light of her own to fight for her right

Education has given emancipation for she is so full of anticipation
She has a heart so tender to care
with a womb that has the power to bear
She still has to tackle society’s shackles
for she is a woman fighting her battles

She is a bird closed and caged, for she is a woman so full of rage
She is assaulted, set ablaze for she is a women abducted as bait
She has a palette with colors so pale
for her atrocities narrate her tale

She is singing a song take me along just take me along
to a place of love where I belong
A place where my gender is no more slender
A place where my peace is not haunted on streets
A place where life is so calm so I could live in no harm

She is a mother, she is a wife,for she is a woman
singing the song of her life
She has a heart that waits for change
to see her world shine forever and ever again”.
- By Barkha Dhar
Copyright (c) 2009-2010 Dharbarkha.blogspot
Photo Courtsey: Dryicons.com

Taking Women's Rights Seriously

Women’s right seems like a gigantic struggle that most women face in developed, developing and under-developed nations. The issue is a walk on a tight rope, may not be as much for developed nations. However for developing and under-developed world it is a mammoth crisis. Poverty, lack of awareness and resources, social segregation and gender discrimination are some prominent parasites of change. Besides this education ranges from none to bleak. The hope for a brighter tomorrow comes with taking up such issues seriously at local and government level. The point that each man has to stand for his woman seems good but what are the chances of such change? An alternative however could be that each educated and empowered woman stands to change every other woman who feels under powered, powerless or even suppressed. In my view, any nation can succeed locally and compete globally if the ratio of contribution in the value chain ranges from men to women and women to women. Only a fraction of empowered women wouldn’t deliver much towards a nation’s competitiveness on the global map. So the principle of unity in diversity is yet again applicable, this time however with the aspect of unified composition of men and women on a diverse global scene.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Women for Women

Women’s equality and empowerment has little to do with mythology in my view. For God, all creatures are equal and one. The past, as is the present in some regions of the globe, has witnessed women handing over the reins to men folk. We women have since centuries been living for our husbands, children and families, numbering our own selves at last. We have been enhancing ourselves physically or sexually to please our mates. Our grandma’s stories were full of God and his exquisite creation- the women. However are women folk still waiting for a divine intervention in order to respond to sexual discrimination, emotional abandonment or even conservatism?. God may have been a little bias in terms of physical power distribution to men. He however balanced the act by creating an emotional powerhouse the women. Bravo God! We women have to realize that role equalities emanate through a balance of physical, mental and emotional interplay. Jesus or Allah doesn’t ride their golden chariots and stop by corporate or homes or schools or universities or even shopping malls to stop power discrimination. A woman has to be the savior of women and of all others like her in the community or tribe or social group. It is indeed afflicting to see how a mother sometimes enforces prostitution on her own daughter or in most cases how a mother in law in connivance with her son and husband sets the daughter in law a blaze. Mothers, daughters and sisters have to fight back and fight it out but not fight amongst. We have to unite to cease the suppression. Modernism may only educate and aware but a spiritual and emotional arousal has to come within. If God could help, he rather wouldn’t until we helped ourselves. He can only share his might by his grace and his shine through inner power. The rest is on us to accumulate, assimilate and actuate.

Copyright (c) 2009 - present Dharbarkha.blogspot
photo courtesy: listeningfromwithin.com

Women really or rarely empowered?

Envisioning dreams in a conservative society sure needs guts. The 21st century however has experienced change in its societal domain. Gender studies, women empowerment and achieving a racial equilibrium have for long looked good in the dictionary, law journals and the university curriculum. These issues have also been voiced and opinionated for years. Amidst all the loud voices, feature presentations, social and international agendas, there are questions that still remain unanswered. In spite of the changing face of urban women, rural regions and conservatism is still a parasite. It is a shallow and pedantic hole that is each day digging the grave for the idea of change. If we are living in a technologically advance and modern society where women are now considered equal to men and where independence meets interdependence, then why do women still feel emotionally abandoned? Moreover, why do still dreams shatter? why isn’t the right to expression fundamental and most importantly why isn’t freedom still free of cost?

Writing about social issues is certainly not my profession but a predisposition. As a little girl, I was taught that womanhood is a gift of god as we have an innate nature to nurture, the perseverance to serve and the power to deliver. I have faint memories of my childhood where women were compared to Goddess Shakti or Durga (The giver of power in Hindu Mythology). I wonder if mythology has anything to do with our social and emotional cravings or is it just a superficial answer to the soul. I wish mythology could mitigate our pain, then we women wouldn’t still suffocate in a split society trying to keep up with religious pressures, and minority faiths or even bear male chauvinism. Wide angle’s documentary on Angelina Duah Fares on PBS perhaps is the root to my burgeoning questions. The story of this young aspiring woman narrates the tales of refined atrocities on women even in this 21st century world.

Further to the above, hailing from a country where women have longed for social and economic independence, I truly empathize with Duah Fares. In times where the world is defined as a single global entity, it is pathetic and emotionally averse to see the plight of women in some regions of the world. Like Angelina Duah Fares there are several other unknown names or faces across the world who still are victims of constant suppression and resentment. It is just that some stories are told while, as others remain half written. This subject of equality and empowerment is indeed debatable. It is important to analyze if the women of 21st century are really empowered or rarely empowered? Well for starters, there are numerous examples of great women achievers whose talents have been realized and recognized. This facet is like a sunshine with women of substance like Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Hallee Berry, or even the most recent achievers like supreme court justice Soniya Sotomayor and Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia, a pioneer in artificial liver invention. These women have truly exemplified thought provoking change and the need to mentor young minds. Needless to say, from scratch to sassy, these women have soared high in a so-called man’s world. This however seems like a mirage when young girls like Duah fares are forced to cease their aspirations. This means that there still exists a huge nascent gap, which needs to be filled with moral dignity and humanity.

Moreover, If all women are born equal and are capable to compete, then why does physical abuse and sexual harassment still exists? Cases such as Duah Fares may give in or give away to religious verdicts, for now but not for long. It certainly seems like a stop –gap and not a full stop. To conclude, as President Obama said in his inaugural speech, “we need to get up and dust ourselves”. In my view, however, this dust needs to transcend economics and politics and touch social issues of liberty and humanity at large. We all need to dust our minds first if we really are committed to enforcing such change in its total domain including the hue and cry of the women force.

Copyright (c) 2009-Till Date Dharbarkha.blogspot
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