PaRCha - JNU - AISA material - 2012 ID-33013
.
March 8th is observed across the world as Womens Day. And, at a time when the powers-that-be try their level best to make us forget the glorious history of working class womens struggles that led to the institution of Womens Day, it is important for us to collectively reiterate the fighting legacy of the womens movement. At a time when young men and women are constantly told that Womens Day is merely an occasion when husbands, brothers and boyfriends are supposed to gift women with chocolates, washing machines and clothes, we need to remind ourselves of exactly WHY womens day is observed. What are the issues facing women today? We live in times when a brave tribal woman Soni Sori remains imprisoned in the Raipur Central Jail she has been brutally tortured and subjected to the most ghastly sexual violence while in custody of the Chhattisgarh police. And what does the UPA do? It rewards Dantewada SP Ankit Garg (under whose custody and supervision Soni Sori was tortured) with a gallantry award. We lives in times when victims of rape and violence are blamed for inviting trouble, while rapists go scot free. The judiciary pardons a convicted rapist because he cleared his IAS exams, and the Supreme Court pardons three men who had been convicted of violent gang rape, on payment of a fine of Rs. 50,000 each. We live in times when newspapers proudly publish matrimonials every week advertisements seeking fair, good looking women of the same caste and class. Elected MLAs and MPs, who are supposed to defend the constitution, openly support diktats issued by khap panchayats denying men and women the right to choose their life partners. And according to Indias Census survey, women involved with cooking, cleaning of utensils, looking after children, fetching water, collecting firewood are categorised as unproductive non-workers!!! Can we afford to overlook the fact that while women's work is made invisible in official statistics, it is the women who bear the brunt of state repression; that the worst possible gender stereotypes are encouraged by the ruling powers, the state machinery, the judiciary and the media? Can we afford to forget that: .
.
India is amongst the five countries in the world with the worst maternal mortality rates. .
.
.
More than half of Indias young women are malnourished and thousands of women die of anaemia. The UPA Government claims to lack enough funds to ensure healthcare and nutrition for all women, yet allows super-rich corporations to loot the country of lakhs of crores in huge scams. Prices of food are soaring, and women are bearing the brunt of hunger and malnutrition. .
.
.
Thousands of girls in India are killed in the womb or as infants, leading to a situation where the number of women is far below that of men. The latest census figures show that the number of girls in the 0-6 age-group has fallen to the lowest since Independence a mere 914 girls for every 1000 boys. .
.
.
Women in all walks of life are denied equal wages to men for equal work. A note issued by the Government in 2010 gave the details of NSSO findings for 2007-08. According to these findings, the average wage rate for regular wage/salaried employees in rural areas was Rs 175.30 for males and Rs. 108.14 for females; and in the urban areas, the wage rate for males was Rs. 276.04 against Rs. .
.
212.86 for females. .
.
.
Women all over the country are killed for the crime of choosing their own life-partners, and are attacked for wearing clothes of their own choice. .
.
.
Women suffer discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape both inside and outside the home, and rarely get justice from courts. Incidents of rape in the country have increased by 791% since 1971, whereas murder increased by just 240%, and robbery by 178%. Governments, realising that rape cases and police insensitivity reflect badly on their regime, are often quick to stoke patriarchal doubts about the rape complainants character and credibility, her clothes, behaviour and morality. These deeply patriarchal biases propagated by right-wing politics and deeply embedded in institutions of power and state machinery have further compounded the growing crime against women. .
.
.
Let us remember that it was working women of the world who began celebrating International Womens Day as a day to salute their struggle for their rights and womens liberation. It is a day to reiterate our commitment to carry forward the legacy of all those women who made it possible to claim 8th March as International Womens Day all over the world as a site for songs of rights and hope. They were of all kinds .
suffragists, industrial workers fighting for equal wages, women who fought to learn to read and write, and women who stepped out of the home to work and to beat back the oppression they saw through history. And they were from all over the world -Sojourner Truth, Mary Wollstonecraft, Clara Zetkin, Tarabai Shinde, Rakhmabai, Savitribai Phule, Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain, Rassundari Debi, Durga bhabi, Preetilata Wadedar, Kalpana Dutt, Kamala Dasgupta, Suhasini Devi, Bina Das, legendary revolutionary .
.
PaRCha - JNU - AISA material - 2012 ID-33013
.
March 8th is observed across the world as Womens Day. And, at a time when the powers-that-be try their level best to make us forget the glorious history of working class womens struggles that led to the institution of Womens Day, it is important for us to collectively reiterate the fighting legacy of the womens movement. At a time when young men and women are constantly told that Womens Day is merely an occasion when husbands, brothers and boyfriends are supposed to gift women with chocolates, washing machines and clothes, we need to remind ourselves of exactly WHY womens day is observed. What are the issues facing women today? We live in times when a brave tribal woman Soni Sori remains imprisoned in the Raipur Central Jail she has been brutally tortured and subjected to the most ghastly sexual violence while in custody of the Chhattisgarh police. And what does the UPA do? It rewards Dantewada SP Ankit Garg (under whose custody and supervision Soni Sori was tortured) with a gallantry award. We lives in times when victims of rape and violence are blamed for inviting trouble, while rapists go scot free. The judiciary pardons a convicted rapist because he cleared his IAS exams, and the Supreme Court pardons three men who had been convicted of violent gang rape, on payment of a fine of Rs. 50,000 each. We live in times when newspapers proudly publish matrimonials every week advertisements seeking fair, good looking women of the same caste and class. Elected MLAs and MPs, who are supposed to defend the constitution, openly support diktats issued by khap panchayats denying men and women the right to choose their life partners. And according to Indias Census survey, women involved with cooking, cleaning of utensils, looking after children, fetching water, collecting firewood are categorised as unproductive non-workers!!! Can we afford to overlook the fact that while women's work is made invisible in official statistics, it is the women who bear the brunt of state repression; that the worst possible gender stereotypes are encouraged by the ruling powers, the state machinery, the judiciary and the media? Can we afford to forget that: .
.
India is amongst the five countries in the world with the worst maternal mortality rates. .
.
.
More than half of Indias young women are malnourished and thousands of women die of anaemia. The UPA Government claims to lack enough funds to ensure healthcare and nutrition for all women, yet allows super-rich corporations to loot the country of lakhs of crores in huge scams. Prices of food are soaring, and women are bearing the brunt of hunger and malnutrition. .
.
.
Thousands of girls in India are killed in the womb or as infants, leading to a situation where the number of women is far below that of men. The latest census figures show that the number of girls in the 0-6 age-group has fallen to the lowest since Independence a mere 914 girls for every 1000 boys. .
.
.
Women in all walks of life are denied equal wages to men for equal work. A note issued by the Government in 2010 gave the details of NSSO findings for 2007-08. According to these findings, the average wage rate for regular wage/salaried employees in rural areas was Rs 175.30 for males and Rs. 108.14 for females; and in the urban areas, the wage rate for males was Rs. 276.04 against Rs. .
.
212.86 for females. .
.
.
Women all over the country are killed for the crime of choosing their own life-partners, and are attacked for wearing clothes of their own choice. .
.
.
Women suffer discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape both inside and outside the home, and rarely get justice from courts. Incidents of rape in the country have increased by 791% since 1971, whereas murder increased by just 240%, and robbery by 178%. Governments, realising that rape cases and police insensitivity reflect badly on their regime, are often quick to stoke patriarchal doubts about the rape complainants character and credibility, her clothes, behaviour and morality. These deeply patriarchal biases propagated by right-wing politics and deeply embedded in institutions of power and state machinery have further compounded the growing crime against women. .
.
.
Let us remember that it was working women of the world who began celebrating International Womens Day as a day to salute their struggle for their rights and womens liberation. It is a day to reiterate our commitment to carry forward the legacy of all those women who made it possible to claim 8th March as International Womens Day all over the world as a site for songs of rights and hope. They were of all kinds .
suffragists, industrial workers fighting for equal wages, women who fought to learn to read and write, and women who stepped out of the home to work and to beat back the oppression they saw through history. And they were from all over the world -Sojourner Truth, Mary Wollstonecraft, Clara Zetkin, Tarabai Shinde, Rakhmabai, Savitribai Phule, Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain, Rassundari Debi, Durga bhabi, Preetilata Wadedar, Kalpana Dutt, Kamala Dasgupta, Suhasini Devi, Bina Das, legendary revolutionary .
.