Women's day: Our place in a man's world

8th March, a day dedicated to women worldwide, a day celebrating womanhood, but somehow this doesn't in the least bit makes me feel any special about being a woman. The very need to put up a date specifically to remind the world to acknowledge and appreciate women all over is in it's own way tragic. But sad as it may be it's all done in good faith, with hope that people all over accept and admit that women face problems well beyond the understanding of a man.
Today my inbox was flooded with inspirational messages for women, lines describing a woman's greatness, a silent plea to love, care for and understand us in the way we deserve. We celebrate this day even as we had a gruesome reminder of what happened in the case of Aruna Shanbaug; even as she lays in the hospital bed, where she has been for the last 37 years of her life, not moving, not talking; even as the person responsible for her condition now roams around free after serving just 7 years jail time for the most brutal crime imaginable.
We celebrate this day even as each of us have been at one time or the other been at the receiving end of what generally is called eve-teasing. To always be on guard, to always have a male relative/friend around to feel safe, being subjected to the never ending list of gender-discriminations, this constant need to stay alert and so much more and yet to be put through all of this over and over again does not quite seem to be in sync with the notion that it's a woman's world as much as it is a man's.
We prove ourselves, we do it over and over again and yet we're still expected to. Even if we end up conquering it all, scaling all heights, and we miss out one small thing we hear the same old line again 'Women cannot do it'. We've reached the pinnacle of success and we still find the time to be a mother, a sister, a daughter, a wife, a friend...managing these without breaking a sweat; yet this goes unnoticed, because we're simply 'expected' to do all of this, simply because it's a woman's job to do everything right.
We celebrate this day even as Natalie Portman was criticized for being happy about being pregnant, criticized by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee for having a baby out of wed-lock. Ok so I paid attention in the sex-ed class, I'm sure I got this right that it takes the male sperm to get woman pregnant. Not only does Mr Huckabee not mention her fiancée Benjamin Millepied (leave alone blame him too) but also accuses Portman of being confident about being a single parent! Her fault he says is she is glamorizing single parenthood.
We celebrate this day even as female infanticide is as big a problem as ever, even that it exists is such a shame. We celebrate this day even as the girl child is being deprived of education and left to learn the household chores to perfection lest her male relatives face any discomfort. We celebrate this day even as each one of us is judged as under constant scrutiny of the society lest we disgrace our family and their honour.
We celebrate this day even as I will be termed feminist for my views and opinions that differentiate women from a doormat. We celebrate this day even as this article will be called cynical as opposed to realistic.
So is emancipation of women in the truest sense a far fetched dream? An illusion to the most part...? For every girl to be able to walk free, feel safe, and live well is what we wish for. In the hope that there comes a day as such here's to all the ladies around. Happy Women's day.

The week that was

The 3 things that had my constant attention this past week…

1) Census 2011- Bright and early as my days are for quite sometime now, I was up when a young girl in her early 20’s accompanied with a young boy came ringing the bell to my house. Soon I was helping her fill out the census form which focused on the education and livelihood details of the family. Rightly so as this was for population enumeration; Governments efforts to have a National Population Register. I had doubts about the accuracy of such a large operation which were confirmed when the girl who was filling out the form was doing so with a pencil and when I asked her why she said ‘So I can erase and write neatly’ :-/ Right. And some columns that she conveniently ignored as she didn't understand what was required to fill. Only when I interrupted and said I’d fill the entire form was it complete and accurate; till it would get erased out to be filled again ‘neatly’. With more than Rs.6000 crore being spent on this, lets hope for the result to be somewhere close to the the real thing.

2) Aarushi unsolved mystery- With the highest investigation team of the country throwing its hands up and giving the no-clue say, we’re left to speculate of what actually transpired that fateful night 2 years back. After requesting for a closure on lack of substantial proofs which was rejected by the court, the parents of the girl were accused with murder. Even with a number of witnesses we see the people responsible for the crime get away with it; with no witnesses, tampered crime scene and inconclusive proofs, can there be justice in this case? Lets hope there is, there’s a little girl who deserves that.

3)The crisis in Egypt-  To see a country that tops my to travel list amidst such a crisis was saddening. The past few days saw the results of years of oppression, of that unyielding desire for a democracy even as we take ours granted, the future of one of the oldest civilizations on a knife’s edge. All eyes on Tahrir square and on this growing movement of protest against the administration the Egyptian nationals are unwilling to settle for anything less that the Presidents ouster. Well if over 30 years you haven’t quite made an impact as a leader on the people of your nation then this had to happen.As a last resort to cling on to power Mr.Mubarak’s plans of forming reform panels and amending the constitution didn’t go down well (the time for that has now long gone), what do you expect to achieve in 8 months that you haven’t in 30 years?

On the brighter side now Hosni Mubarak has finally stepped down, having to give in to his own people; with the nations hope for a government of representation to build on the pillars of peace and equality, all we can hope for is for the beautiful country to save itself from the after effects of this turmoil, for a future it deserves best.

A most unfortunate, lamentable situation.

Of the 40 tiger reserves in our country, almost 20 of them have really very low tiger density, some facing local extinction and trying to recover, some where they already are locally extinct.  Various reasons like human encroachment of land coming under the area of the reserves, poaching, depleting habitat and felling of trees for agriculture, human settlements, industrialization etc have brought about the deplorable condition of our national animal.

With the many downers that we’ve been witnessing there is surely a big possibility of the extinction of these beautiful creatures. There is also a misconception among the general public that this hue and cry is just exaggeration and the world has enough tigers for something like extinction to never materialize. For all those ignorant minds, wake up! Else the day is not far off when you’d actually see it happen. So stop pretending that there is no problem when there is. Don’t put your hands up and say there’s nothing you can do for there is. The least one can do is spread awareness, it does wonders, it pressurizes the Government to act and act quick, it helps the NGO’s working for this cause, it throws light on the various alarming facts, it helps people understand the seriousness of the issue, it motivates the nation as a whole to put its act together and work towards saving the tiger.

A recent article in a leading national newspaper brought to light one of the few positive outcomes of the efforts of the Government and various NGO’s. A total of 16 villages have been relocated and rehabilitated from the Bhadra Tiger Reserve in Karnataka. This whole process had started in 1987 but picked up momentum in the late 1990’s with the active involvement of the forest and revenue departments and, more importantly, the participation of village representatives and NGOs.

This stands out as a one of a kind situation where to make way for the tigers, the humans have moved and it comes as a much needed ray of hope, for not all relocations worked well and had been handled badly. The Bhadra settlement surely would encourage the Government agencies and the NGO’s to work together and help save the tiger. This shows that there are things that if effectively and strategically done then the chances of the country’s wildlife to stay protected definitely come around.

So a bow-down to the villagers of Bhadra and the officials involved for overcoming the various political, bureaucratic hurdles and letting the tiger roar!

Here’s hoping we see many more such efforts become a success. Amen.