International Women’s Day comes this year against a particularly poignant background of a daughter of India having been lost to mindless sexual violence in December last year. That should help bring the focus today on the real status of women in India, apart from the spontaneous celebration of a symbolic day on which men can express their love and respect for women by combining the best of emotions that rule the likes of Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day.
While the first Women’s Day may have been observed more than a century ago in a completely different political and social milieu, many of the issues on which women are still battling in this world are relevant even in these modern times. If sexual discrimination continues to persist, it should serve to remind the world that there are many more battles to be fought on the gender front. It is certainly appropriate then that the United Nations theme for Women’s Day 2013 is: “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women”.
Considering what happened in the horrific incident in New Delhi on December 16, 2012, this day might just be the time to introspect on how far we have come as a society and how much further we have to go before women can feel safe enough across this country before they even begin to assess how equal they are in society.
The year’s theme as set by International Women’s Day — “The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum” — also perfectly captures the mood of the times. Terrible as it was to contemplate that such an incident is still possible in a civilised society, at least it helped to trigger considerable thought being lent towards the redrawing of laws against sexual assault, stalking and “eve-teasing”, a euphemism we are somehow unable to avoid because it is so deeply ingrained in men’s attitude to women in this country.
The government’s move to reduce the age of consent to 16 while keeping the age of marriage at 18 is in keeping with the J.S. Verma Committee’s recommendations, and might help us to move forward as a society on sexual matters while at the same time offering greater protection to women in new anti-sexual assault laws. Even so, it is men’s attitude towards women that must first change if we are to evolve into a more egalitarian and enlightened state and society.