Women’s collective leadership
“What is your definition of an empowered woman?” I asked this question with my colleagues to get a general answer of someone who can make decisions on their own, who can roam, and gets equal pay. How ironic is this to make such a statement on the land where women are considered to be goddess, least in books. A woman who had the “opportunity” of getting an education defines an empowered woman as defined above. How far are we from SDG 5 where all an urban woman wants is equality! What would be the situation of a woman who did not get the opportunity of getting educated? Who is not aware of their rights, whose work goes unacknowledged? I am referring to the rural women here!
This international women’s day, I would like to celebrate the women’s collective leadership of our country. I would like to bring light to the work done by the women during the pandemic. Let’s Celebrate the women collectives of our nation this International women’s day. I am talking about Self Help Groups of women, which are very much existent in almost every state of our country.
I would like us, the urban women, to celebrate the magnificent resilience shown by the women of our rural belt. Had they not worked tirelessly, relentlessly for the country be it for stitching the masks or producing the sanitizers, we would not have been able to contain the pandemic as much we have! The Indian Government and the bureaucrats rightly observed the power and resilience of women, used their potential. Our resilience shall be celebrated!
On one hand, our parliament has not been able to pass the women reservation bill in the legislation for the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, on other we rely on women workforce everywhere- be it in the informal sector, or the formal sector of nurturing and shaping young minds of our nation. The patriarchal notions are so deep-rooted that we acknowledge the strength of women’s collective leadership but are afraid of giving them autonomy. We are still afraid of changing the status quo and bringing women to the forefront.
If we will not celebrate the women’s collective leadership shown by women of the SHGs this year, their hard work, their passion will go unnoticed as has been done since time immemorial. It will be unfair of us for not giving them their due credits as equal to other frontline workers. It will be unfair of us not celebrating their collective leadership in the pandemic. Let us women, stand for these magnificent women who are often mistaken as vulnerable groups. Let’s acknowledge their hard work and commemorate their strength this women’s day.