VISION - WOMEN

IN 2030

 Ensure equal participation for

women in all fields of life in all
stages of her life cycle.
They have no limits on their
future aspirations, no matter
where they are born.

GANDHIJI had once said

Women is the companion of
man
Gifted with equal mental
capacity.

Women also referred to

as better half of man,
is also referred to as
(POWER) in India.

In a significant departure from our

ancient culture where women were
treated as equals with great respect
since they are entrusted with the
greatest responsibility of CREATION
are not being given their due place in
current times, especially in the
PATRIARCHIAL Societies.

 Big question - when and how this transition

happened?
It is difficult for me to trace when it happened.
However for how it happened, I feel that on one
hand, women out of their love and submission,
slowly let go off their authority when their male
counterparts grabbed and assumed it.
Slowly this malaise got widespread and deep
rooted.

 We as responsible people have

to correct this wrong doing
and have gathered here to
think about the opportunities
we have and challenges we
have to overcome.

 Vision can be split in small

goals achievable in short span
and eventually our VISION will
become reality.

 MEN AND WOMEN are two equal

biological counterparts complementary to each other.
It would of great advantage for both
if they remain equals and would also
benefit the Society and the Nation.

 Example to illustrate any mismatch

between them
Imagine a vehicle having 2 different
wheel sizes, one small and one big.
The vehicle will become unstable and
its movement would be a disaster.

 To realise the Vision

We have to split it into
small goals achievable in
short span.

 For accomplishing our VISION,

though the government has a bigger
role to play, it cannot do it alone.
To bring around desired change,
every individual, be it the children,
youth, elderly, everyone will have to
pitch in with their efforts and
become active stakeholders.

Opportunities are infact

also the challenges
which are to be
overcome

EDUCATION
Every household must ensure that their girl
child gets her full education and is not
discriminated.
Since many families barely make ends meet,
they avoid educating girl child as they feel she
has a responsibility to look after the
household.
Thus, the government on its part should
ensure fund availability for the needy families.

HEALTH AND NUTRITION

For this also every household will have to
ensure that girl child gets equally nutritious
food for her healthy development without
disparity.
Needless to say funding support for the needy
segment of society has to come from
government.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
Todays women have shown that they
have potential to take over any role
which earlier was limited to males.
Thus we have to simply provide them
equal opportunities to realize their real
potential.

PREVENTION OF CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN

As the saying goes ONCE BITTEN TWICE SHY - any
one incident of crime against women prohibits
the development of other females in that area as
their families become too fearful in allowing
them to venture out.
For this to end, families should also proactively
teach their males to respect women
Proactively punish the males on noticing any
errant behaviour instead of shielding them.
As rightly said by our PM during Independence
Day speech, home toilets will go a long way in
preventing crimes against women to a large
extent.

ARRESTING DECLINING SEX RATIO

It is generally said that women is also a perpetrator of
crime against women.
This applies in case of abortion of female foetus by
expectant mothers for want of male child.
This is not confined only to lower income families and
equally holds true for affluent ones.
Women should come forward strongly and shun this
practice and deliver and rear female child with equal care
and love.
Same applies to dowry related crimes where mother-inlaws torture or even kill their daughter-in-law for
bringing less dowry. They should also shed this practice.

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
Financially self reliant females can go a long
way in ensuring development of women.
SHGs run by females, started as a small
ventures later became roaring success
eventually making them active partners in
managing households are perfect examples.
Women should shun their ABLA attitude and
actively participate in earning livelihood.

 Apart from the previously

mentioned issues requiring
concerted action by individuals
and government, some steps
can be taken only by the
government:-

LEGISLATION
Enacting necessary laws with focus on
female empowerment / protection with
inbuilt punitive measures to act as
deterrent for stopping crime against
women, including constitutional
amendments, if necessary.

FUNDING FOR VARIOUS SCHEMES

Increased budgetary support for
education / health / nutrition for women.
All future plans / policies should be
devised after carefully considering their
implications on every stage of life of the
females.

 For wide publicity for schemes use of modern

communication medium like TV, RADIO,
INTERNET, MOBILE etc. should be taken.
As target audience of such schemes is primarily
illiterate - Language / forms /procedures should
be kept very simple and information sought for
availing schemes should be bare minimum.
It is often seen that they run from pillar to post
for availing benefits and at times are exploited
for filling of forms.
They should be given single window or one
point of contact.

 However a moot question remains that

despite government efforts of putting in
place of several schemes / legislations for
empowerment / upliftment / integration
of females desired change is not seen.
To me it appears is due to inbuilt sense of
male superiority due to various reasons
and lack of will to shed it.

 To change this mindset of society is easier said than done.

For this, I feel that instead of simply preaching sermons, it would be better
to lead by examples.
Despite plenty of examples set by females excelling in male dominated
fields, they are perceived as distant truths far from realities and not to be
within the reach of common man.
We should encourage and endeavour to adopt one child norm irrespective
of it being male or female,
Neighborhood females excelling in their achievements can act as an
example in their vicinity for others which would be easy to follow and
practice.
Also engaging people from all walks of life and all stages of their life cycle,
including children and youth in a dialogue to shake their conscience, as is
rightly being done through this interaction, would go a long way in
achieving the VISION in lesser than estimated time frame.
They can act as a catalyst bringing about change in their respective
families / societies which they are a part of.

 Even though many of the ideas /

suggestions discussed here might appear
repetitive to many there is no need to
be discouraged.
Instead we should work on repeating
them so much that they come back as
ECHO from all around and bring a
change.

TEJHAS KAPOOR
KENDRIYA VIDYALAYA
PRAGATI VIHAR