Women Empowerment and Development

In order that a country progress and prosper, the constituent comprising of half the population needs to be elevated and given equal status sooner so that the objective of development and prosperity is achieved. Whichever country has done it faster the quicker they have achieved their goal as most civilised and progressive society. Untill Women are empowered and developed with respect to living conditions, quality of life, liberty and freedom of speech and gender equality, the prosperity of the society do not occur and society do not evolve which has been the experience specially of the last century.

Hence the importance of empowering women and development of the women of the country is much desired to achieve the overall perspective of progress who are otherwise silently contribute towards the growth as a Nation. We need to pay heed to our near major or equal voice which is otherwise silent but expressive in the form of results in the society in delivering in the areas of literacy, growth, maturity and prosperity. All these progress parameters heavily depend on mothers and their upbringing.

Here the famous quote of Swami Vivekananda prevails, “Can you better the condition of your women? Then there will be hope for your well-being. Otherwise you will remain as backward as you are now.”

“A country is successful when it treats its WOMEN well” is what the President of the United States of America Mr. Barack Obama had said just before leaving India during his last concluded visit on 27th January 2015.

Development of Women thus is of paramount importance for a country to evolve and excel towards development and advancement, amounting to spread of civilization. A country is said to have evolved better if women are well educated, in leading positions in various occupations, able to exercise free speech, able to enjoy equal rights with that of men etc., among numerous requirements of a civilized society. In India, so far women have not been receiving adequate attention in more or less a traditional male chauvinistic society and therefore there existed a huge gender disparity and inequality.

In order to eradicate the various anomalies Government of India has come up with various policies over the period of time since independence. Following are the few of the policies and actions undertaken over the years.

Many noted personalities in the past have always stressed that mother and girl child needs to be taken care in terms of education, upbringing and even ensuring adequate nutrition, which the misinformed males of the societies are not aware of. Hence it was omnipotent to spread awareness that if the girl child and the mother are not cared for, it leads to the degradation family to that of the society and in fact society as a whole becomes weak.

Hence the subject of women development assumes importance and discussed as below in Indian context. Although multifarious programmes were drawn it needs to be implemented in grass root levels with outmost sincerity to produce desired results, which will be evident from the progress of the society.

The Beagle Night

Arya awakened by the sound of beagle blown from the Military Cantonment ‘Happy Valley’ up the hill beside his bedroom. Instantaneously he remembered ‘Oh! Today is the last day of the Bengali month Paush, the day auspicious for many good reasons & for celebration as well.’ From this very date the Sun takes a northwardly turn and approaches the longest night of the year he recollected.


‘We shall all do a Mera Meri’r Ghar’ said Arya & his friends roared a chorus, ‘Arya we shall built big enough a house this time so that all of us can sit & play inside.’ Demand mainly led as ‘We need a grand celebration of the occasion ‘Paush Sankranti’ said Papri. ‘And for the entire past one week you know Arya, all the likes of Madhumita, Arpan, Maya, Bubul, Tia, Manna, Archana, Ranjan, Himadri, Papri & Trisha were all grossly pre-occupied in collecting the pine tree leaves from the neighbourhood borough’ added Ranjan.


Trisha was the most talented of them all and expected to get position in the board exams; Arya on the other hand was just a mediocre guy but had enormous muscles and ‘V’ shaped figure to boost of. He at times looked like prince charming with his gorgeous eyes and sharp nose with complimentary temple.


The other day Arya took out a wooden plank three inches by one foot. He fixes up three inches long iron nails on that piece of wood ten to twelve in a row for around three to four rows and then fixes a handle to it. ‘Wow what a craftsmanship Arya’, said Trisha ‘You look nothing less than an impending Engineer!’ However, to Arya it looked like a miniature country made vacuum cleaner handle with nothing more than a scrapper. ‘Come let’s take this instrument to the jungle’ said Arya in jubilation. ‘Well you have done well in your Board exams and have nothing to worry’ said Madhumita.


In these cold winter days in Shillong, the nearby hill was full of Pine tree leaves with freshly shed ones on the top. Since the onset of the winter, in this dense pine forest, the grass by now got covered heavily with pine leaves like a thick carpet floor. ‘Pine tree leaves’ are long threads of thick cotton like and about half to one foot long and they make extremely good material for temporary house wall. The house after all called as Mera Meri’r Ghar by all the mates.


Over the past few days Arya & Co went regularly to the hill and one particular day he exclaimed ‘Oh its morning 9 O‘clock and imagine I am still shivering and it’s a lovely Chill guys!’ ‘Yeah it is a Disco December added Maya’. Every day with the increase of the cold intensity, more are the leaves that were scrapped from the ground by the hikers in delight. Trisha collected leaves in a jiffy and poured them all in gunny bags with rest of the guys laying helping hands. At times she playfully threw a few leaves at Maya, who in turn put scraps on Arya. Every day on return, the collection count stood at four to five gunny bags, this of course do not include the leaves that stuck to their sweaters! ‘Where in the Jungle had you been to get fully covered in scrap?’ Maya invited a frown from her mother.


In the afternoon when the Sun was brighter in comparison they fixed columns of typical bamboo (Nali bash) – these grow smaller in diameter in this part of the world. The entire frame work was made of that bamboo slashes and pine leaves were put all around like a thatched wall with bamboo reinforcements. ‘Maya imagine you need to stay with your hubby on this kind of a house’ said Papri. ‘Yeah I would love to if I have you as my Souten’ replied Maya in desperation.


On the D Day everybody sought permission from their respective parents to gather in the backyard garden of Arya’s house where the lovely looking house was built. It had one and the only open door but. Maya & Papri took ultra special initiative to decorate the house with coloured ribbons & placed sitting furniture, made the floor look the tidiest. All of them gathered past evening after the sunset and sat in encircled fashion. It was Arya’s idea to organise the party on this day of the powerful festival of east India and the guys looked set in no uncertain terms to be awake all night. The assembly gathered momentum with giggles from girls and loud laughter from the guys. They all nodded for a singing competition. It was Trisha to sing first, decided not by lottery but by consensus and Manna to strum his guitar and with Ranjan on his ‘Mridanga the Dhool’. Ranjan beat the drum in uncontrolled fashion for a few minutes before he could achieve his rhythm. ‘Trisha you sang really well’ sounded Maya with all clapping in rejoinder. One guy looked extremely happy at the outset and the way things started to roll on. He welcomed the first singer with outmost vigour & vitality to suit his extra muscular perception.


Trishaji confused herself with ’Lataji ’ and sang with all emotion and energy. Trisha unintentionally looked at someone while singing her finishing note and felt could not gulp and take a normal breath. She says ‘Papri can you please pass the water bottle.’ The moment that buddy rotated his shoulder for the impending stare, her heart ignited and started to miss bits intermittently. Trisha instantly remembered one day that her father said ‘look Trisha, place your ear on my left breast, can you hear something? ‘Yes’ said Trisha. Trisha in simulation could feel something going wrong in her heart! Forgetting about the rest, Trisha then looked at him yet again purposefully and felt that some kind of electric wave and chill going down her spine! Meanwhile, Papri extended her arms and said ‘Trisha taste this platter brought by Maya from her kitchen but cooked by her mom’ and repeated it quite a few times. Papri suddenly noticed in the middle of high decibel sounds, Trisha looked lost and deeply engrossed and then she had to bang Trisha to gain her attention! ‘Papri said to herself Oh! There she is Trisha ‘what’s on Dear?’ Trisha replied blushing ‘Nothing, nothing, I am OK’


Trisha now started to feel more upheavals on her respiratory tract and found no one near enough to confide what’s going on. She was tempted to tell all to Maya but changed her mind in the end. She became ultra conscious not to depict the change in status of her turbulent mind to others and remained careful but went unmindful erratically. For the rest of the party she remained restless and wanted to explode of her own.


Madhumita & Babul initiated to light a small fire right in the middle and Maya said ‘well done guys – it brings a good respite in this lovely chilly night.’ Trisha without any natural will of her own exchanged an eye contact with that being who was saying ‘Come on guys let’s dance and synchronise our steps’. God knows Trisha felt an instant desire to get up and get going only to be stopped by her own conscience and said ‘Babe control yourself, control’ while in deep silence. She thought from the within ‘He is my Hero indeed!!’


In the middle of the night when the horizon was displaying reddish tinge of the dawn, the beagle started to blow from the other side of the hill and the guys started to noise ‘Mera Merir Ghar Jale re Oye, Khaite lage bashi pancha Doi’ (The house is on fire at last, you should eat stale yogurt, ho ho), Ranjan lit the fire on the house, in a moment the fire started to raise high & higher and started to engulf the entire making, Trisha ran fast and went to the other side of the fire caught her hero and placed her lips on to his.

#JaiHind

Secular or Sickular what the Modern Society needs?

Secular or Secularism is the term was grossly misunderstood by me. Hah!


The word to which I got familiar with during my early childhood but did not pay much attention to understand it. Initially mistook it for yet another religion as I was Hindu by birth and culture, so believed someone has to belong to one religion or the other.


Saw a few secularists moving here and there and found they got upset being called as Hindu although born in illustrious Hindu families.


I sometimes wondered what they must be doing during Durga Puja when we joyously celebrated from Chandipath (reciting verses from holy books) early in the morning of Mahalaya (New moon day being day before the onset of Navaratri), till the Durga Idol is immersed in river on the 10th Day called Vijaya Dashami or Dusserra. During the intervening days, schedules were, getting up early in the morning, after taking bath and afresh with purity and going with my father to Puja Pandels to offer flowers (Anjali) to the Goddess of Energy and strength, these were great rituals enjoyed to the innermost core. My Father used to recite Chandi Slokas and my three sisters used to sing devotional songs of Maa Durga or Mahisasura Mardini. I used to hover around with no one taking notice of me. But new clothes, new environment, cultural functions in the evening immediately after evening Aarti or offering of light to the Goddess Durga, used to be an absolute heart purifying and divine activity.

Question never cropped up in mind why do we worship female Goddess?


The “Sandhi Puja” or offering light lamps in the wee hours of the morning on the eighth day used to fill my heart with serenity, tranquility and peace.


At times, one of my sister being busy in exams or sick will never go anywhere near the Temple or Deity. But never found anybody compelling her to do anything against her wishes, just because it was our biggest festival of the year. My mother never persuaded her or uttered, “go out there or you will incur sin.” Nevertheless, it used to extraordinarily activate complete surrender of self to the Almighty or the Supreme or The creator of self and the surroundings, to the extent I can perceive, no limit though that I could comprehend! It used to be a complete spiritual contentment now that I realize.


Now coming back to Secular word it caught my imagination during the Lok Sabha (Upper House) Elections of 2014, thereon I found some Twiteratti calling Secular as ‘Sickulars’ and I was not in a position to comprehend the new satire terminology until I started delving into it in great detail.


To my utter dismay I found it not to be yet another religion per se’!


During my research for the word Secular I found that during the evolution of modern civilization, the issue was that the people were not able to comprehend many natural phenomena starting with whether Sun rotates around the earth or vice-versa, therefore to initiate the human understanding of the events in cosmos relevant to their lives: religion came first to offer guidance. This lead to the framing up of various laws governing human behavior based on religion and thereafter science prospered. With the advent of science gradually day by day many happenings around us began to be derived at by scientific and logical conclusions. Not that as on date we have answers to all our inquisitive pursuits but certainly the gap is narrowing down.


In the meanwhile, Religion started to dominate the human lives and with the formation of various groups in various parts of the world and due to difficulty in communication amongst themselves, various religious sects were formed at different places of the World. Society was formed in clusters far away from each other. With the improvement of the communication and mobility of the masses, various religious groups started to live together due to utter necessity of living and offering services of various kinds required to conduct day to day lives and thus at times produced conflicts of culture and ideas due to this congressional action. Religion now started to interfere in governance of a society. Thus it became a requirement to detach religion from governance and control.


Secularism is the word first coined by British writer George Jacob Holyoake in 1851. Who wished to offer alternative to religious governance by introducing this neutral word, which basically sought Administrative activities free from the control of the Church or of the Christian religious heads or clergies. The roles of Priests are although formidable in growth of society as they are the ones who initiated the control the mass behavior and contributed to law & justice domain to begin with! Advocates gown arrives in the professional attire due to this very fact.


Therefore, in an effort to modernize society and making it free from bias and prejudices and allowing it to follow rule of law, a neutral Secular term as offered to the administrators of modern society. Here the state will not have any declared religion of its own and shall be impartial and allow at the same time practice of any religion as a matter of individual choice and shall not prefer one religion over the other.


Now in a social set up, any idea is subject to manipulation and misrepresentation and that is what exactly has happened to our mother India. Now, politicians whose duty was to prevent misuse started to abuse the term Secular for their own benefit and presented it in the manner beneficial to them. The greatest of the miscommunication took place during Independence of India. It went on to the extreme extent that India was partitioned or divided on religious lines. Thus it gave birth to two nations India and Pakistan. Where partition of India was illogical as two separate, geographically disconnected territories were made part of one country, it also unequally divided the Indus valley Civilisation and its heritage into two. Pakistan got further divided and gave rise to Bangladesh in 1971. Bangladesh was formed due to difference in culture and language to such a great extent with the dominant west Pakistani rulers, that mix and match were found difficult. Therefore, the idea of Partition of India has proven it to be flawed with time.


As of now both Pakistan and Bangladesh are Islamic states and India remains a secular country in its intent to be progressive and not a Hindu state in spite of Hindus being in majority: meaning the Indian state shall not adopt any religion as its own and in order to provide equality to all citizens as enshrined in our constitution vide Article 14, there shall be equal treatment to all the various religious and cultural groups that wish to make India its own motherland.

However, Indians shall be allowed to exercise freely their own religious faith without any obstruction from the state machinery. Further democratic India shall help and allow propagation and conservation by individual groups of their own religious culture, traditions and identity vide Article 25 to 30 of the Constitution of India. This is very fair proposition but the politicians began to present the vastly ignorant populace of the nation in their own way and net result is that the Secularism word started to be perceived as means of giving preference to the religious minorities and even by depriving the majority Hindu community. Mr Lal Krishna Advani the then Dy Prime Minister of India in late nineties coined the word Pseudo Secularism, by which he meant that India is not following the philosophy of Secularism in true sense of the word and spirit.


Fundamentals of Secularism as enshrined in the constitution by our founding fathers as our basic structure is violated quite frequently in India. Chief Minister of West Bengal goes on to provide social security allowances to Imams of Masjid leaving aside saints, seers and priests, archbishops of all other religious communities in despair; provides cycles to poor Muslim girls leaving aside all other poor girls anguished. This is gross violations of Article 14 or equality.


Whereas majority of the Hindu temples are under the control of the Government, but Masjids are under self controlled Wakf Board. Every day early in the morning Supreme Court order on use of Loud speakers of 2005 is violated by breaking silence in the silence zone from 10PM to 6AM and tolerant India don’t protest against it but bear it. This reaffirms the words of Swami Vivekananda uttered in 1893 at Chicago: “I'm Proud to belong to a Religion (Sanathan Dharma) which has taught the world TOLERANCE & Universal Acceptance..!!“


There is subsidy for Haj travel but there is service tax on Amarnath Yatra. There are supposed to be no caste system in Christianity but Scheduled tribes of North East India gets all the benefits applicable for Scheduled caste and Scheduled tribes in spite of being from religious community other than Hindu. In fact the Constitutional purpose was to eradicate untouchability, caste system, downtrodden and discrimination which existed only amongst Hindus, all other religious communities claimed no caste system in their parlance. Refugees from West Pakistan (mostly Hindus and Sikhs) who crossed over to J&K after 1944 but before 1954 were denied Permanent Resident Certificates as of today. They cannot apply for jobs and their children can’t get higher education in the State of J&K. On the other hand Adnan Sami subject of Pakistani origin is given Indian Citizenship for contribution in the field of art and culture. So discrimination and disparity, one of the aggravated forms exist, even now.


Now, finally in the modern era where the society is no longer agriculture based but industrialized, mobility of persons from one corner of the world to the other is inevitable due to various skills sets that fetch the living and wanting exchange of ideas in greater degree: immigration and Globalization is order of the day. The society is gradually drifting from religious basis to skill or knowledge or domain expertise or core competency basis; there is urgent need all over the world to have a uniform order based on scientific temper and modernity. It is now difficult even to keep one family in one continent forget about keeping them confined to one village or one city.


With the advent of internet, modern communication, modern mobility equipment like Aircraft and Supersonic Jets there may be a World Global village and unification of the World order is due. Say for example, in olden days the Childbirth was a matter of chance and God’s will but today it can be controlled, even to the extreme extent of illegally identifying the gender of the foetus and exercising options.


World order is changing in a rapid pace, weather can now be predicted with much more accuracy than ever before, environment thus need to be sustainably protected for healthy survival of all the living beings, and our beautiful world can also be destroyed in less than a second by click of a nuclear button!


Hence, it becomes all the more important to understand the need for peaceful cohabitation or coexistence, secular, multicultural, multilingual society, which shuns religious fundamentalism, terrorism and bring about a vibrant, ever changing, dynamic and modern civil society.


Finally, to make this earth a better place to live what we need is not "Sickular" or Sick by any means but "Healthy" is the order of the day.


#JaiHind