Women empowerment

Empower women, Empower Generations.
Each year we celebrate International Women’s day
on March 8th with a determination to
commemorate the achievements of women, and to
acknowledge the special status they deserve in
society. The significant question is what difference
has it made to the position of women? Have
women become really strong, and have their long
term struggles ended ?
Though women have progressed in a number of
spheres, yet looking from a wider perspective, the
situation remains grim. According to the statistics
by CARE, out of 1.3 billion people who live in
absolute poverty around the globe, 70% are
women. Reflecting on UNESCO’s medium term
strategy 2008-13, gender equality has been
assigned as organization’s global priority.
Astonishingly, two third of the 774 million adults
in the world who cannot read is women.
The context in the developing and third world
countries is worse. Women here are still subject
to ‘honor killings’, they are still denied their basic
rights to education and freedom, and face violence
and abuse. It was observed in a CARE project
working with adolescent girls in India, that these
girls were considered as temporary people who
would cease to exist, at least for their fathers,
once they are married. In many places in India,
domestic violence is acceptable to women, and
cultural and ethical implications are imposed on
their freedom. What does that mean? It would be
wrong to state that nothing has changed as a
number of local, national and international
organizations are working together to mitigate the
problems, yet their is a long way to go.
Initiatives by NGOs like Jan Chetna Manch,
Foundation to educate Girls Globally, The Hunger
Project, STEPS Women Development Organization,
in addition to the National Mission for the
Empowerment of women(NMEW) launched by the
Govt. of India are some significant steps towards
the goal, and the 2011 Census have shown some
improvements too.

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