Be Independent,Be strong

Leaving Patriarchy behind

Today, we celebrate the 70^th years of freedom which have brought about a lot of change in the nation once known as the “Golden Sparrow”. Although there are only regular birds left now but still we find the orthodox mindset in many parts of county mostly rural, there are still people who think that men are better than women, like they have some kind of special set of senses that the other half does not poses. It has already been 70 years of freedom, freedom in which was won together by supporting and standing-by each other, we should at-least respect think of them and say no all the discrimination and crime whose major victims are Indian women.

There have been a lot of changes in the role of women in our society from being just a household woman to representing the nation in Olympic games, here is a story of a brave girl from India who made a difference.

Dipa Karmakar

She has made the nation proud by achieving what was has never been done by any other Indian  She is the first Indian female gymnast ever to compete in the quadrennial extravaganza, and the first Indian gymnast to do so in 52 years. She attained 4th position in Women's Vault Gymnastics event of Rio Olympics 2016 with an overall score of 15.066. She has also won a bronze medal at 2014 commonwealth games which were held at Glasgow. Ms.Dipa is one of only five women who have successfully landed the Produnova, the most difficult vault currently performed in women's gymnastics. She also won a bronze medal at the Asian Gymnastics Championships and finished fifth at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, both firsts for India.

Brave women like her are an inspiration to all the women who are suppressed by their own people and to those are victims of patriarchy and negligence. Boy or a girl both must be encouraged at all sorts of activities. You never know what kind of potential is hidden in them, being a guardian one must take care of all the basic need needs of a not discriminate among them. Today a mere girl of 22 from a small town in Tripura has taken the first step to victory and will be followed by many young women whom she has inspired.

WOMEN WITH TECHNOLOGY

The foundations of technology are based on programming and electronics. Many people think that both these fields are male-dominated, or women had started emerging as experts only in the present. But looks can be deceiving. The early contributions of women are so significant that advancement in these fields wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.

ROMANCING COMPUTERS

Many of us have heard about the programming language Ada. It is one of the structured and elegant computer languages which has been popularly used for many years. But what most of us aren’t aware is that this language was named after the person who laid the foundations of programming, by the name of Ada Lovelace. And yes, Ada Lovelace was a woman. Ada Lovelace wrote an algorithm for Charles Babbage’s computer, which was effectively the first computer program.

MATHEMATICS

One of the fastest human calculators is an Indian called Shakuntala Devi. Her feats which included multiplying two thirteen digit numbers and reporting the answer in a mere 28 seconds and providing the thirteenth root of 201. Such amazing arithmetic athletics won her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1982. She was also the pioneering Indian author who wrote on the topic of homosexuality and suggested that its acceptance rather than intolerance would be beneficial for the society.

SPACE PROGRAMMING

Neil Armstrong and his crew from Apollo 11 were the first ones on the Moon, with Neil Armstrong performing the first walk on the Moon. But do we actually know the technicians who made that possible? The development of the entire on-board flight software was supervised by Margaret Heafield Hamilton from Indiana USA. The spacecraft took the astronauts back and forth from the Moon, the first and only crew to have accomplished such a feat.

Truly, these achievements just goes on to prove the essential fact over and over again:  apart from learning to implement technologies, women have also proved their roles in being pioneers over their male counterparts in various fields.

Promote the deserving not the gender.

 Gender Discrimination at Workplace

It is a fact that discrimination prevails in our society, and most of the time the victims are women. Women in India face discrimination at each and every stage of their life whether it is the time of pocket money, education, sports or promotion at a job, All discriminations are lethal for the development of the country but one which is the most serious issue of Indian corporate circle is that women are paid and promoted less than men. It is considered that a man is more work efficient than a woman, major promotion opportunities are given to men and while we say women are moving shoulder to shoulder with men they are forced to prove themselves efficient at all times.

Gender discrimination are increasing rapidly, there has been a lot of buzz about it in the news, Everyday you hear about a new story about how the above evil took place in some or the other workplace. It doesn't just means that a job was given to an equally deserving male as the female but also the case of promoting, or the case when the reason to fire an employee is that she is pregnant. Many a times, women (housewives) generally step out of their houses during their difficult times to deal with the hardships to earn to provide the basic necessities to their family and hence the employers take the advantage of the situation by providing lower salaries irrespective of the qualities or qualifications of the employee and the women are forced to accept the low salaries.

Women are supposed to be humble, modest and accommodating, and are instantly seen as being weak or emotional if they find it difficult to take a tough decision or stand. Even loans are denied to single women and they are marginalised to a large extent even among the literate community. Women are not perceived as successful even if they make progress in their careers if they are not able to manage their home front. Even when a mistake is committed by a male, he is left off the hook and if the same mistake a female commits grudges are held. This has to stop women must learn to a stand for themselves because as long as this type of discrimination prevails in the society there is no way our country can develop and flourish as the largest democratic nation should.

Not as feeble as portrayed by The Society

There has been a lot of buzz about the once in four year event-The Olympics which is going to take place in Rio this  year, athletes from all parts of the world prepare for this even all their lives. One of the popular events is wrestling which has almost 350 participants this year, wrestling which was considered purely a man’s game is witnessing rising female participation as well. This time the Olympic committee has added a couple more categories in the female wrestling event. Which not only is a symbol of women empowerment but also an instance that shows women are moving shoulder to shoulder with men.

Wrestling is many parts of India is a very popular sport, almost everyone know about it and those who were not aware about the sport and its status have a clear idea now after the release of “Sultan” the movie in which the life of many wrestlers from displayed, although the movie was about the life of a wrestler in rural India and the difficulties a female wrestler goes through her life, but life is not as simple as shown in movie and there has been a  lot of hard work and practice which has helped all three female participants of the summer Olympics from our country.

Babita Kumari

She is the sister of India's first gold medallist in wrestling at the Commonwealth Games, Geeta Phogat. Babita is the daughter of wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat. Babita has a cousin Vinesh Phogat who won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Babita, along with her sister and cousin, have contributed to a change in mindset and attitude towards girls and women in their village in Haryana. She has had an astonishing career and we hope that she achieves every success she desires.

 Vinesh Phogat

Coming from a village in Haryana which is known for its male dominant nature and the worst sex ratio of 877 females to every 1000 males, at a very young age she has become a gem to the country and we hope that she flourishes and makes the country proud.

Vinesh is the daughter of wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat's youger brother Rajpal and the cousin of wrestlers Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari. In allowing her cousins and herself to pursue competitive wrestling, her father and uncle had to deal with immense pressure and opposition from the community in their village in Haryana. They were adjudged as going against the morals and values of their community.

Sakshi malik

She represented India in the women's freestyle 58 kg category at the2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in which she won the silver medal. She also represented India in the women's freestyle 60 kg category at the 2014 World Wrestling Championships in Tashkent.

It is a matter of great honour to represent your country in the apex competition so far away from home, also it is a great deal to represent women power to those who still have narrow patriarchal mindset and believe that a boy is better than a girl. One must take a lesson from these brave women that until and unless you don’t stand up for yourself no one else can help you s stop being petty and star being powerful.

FROM THE SHADOWS TO LITERATURE

From the medieval times, women were strictly prohibited from participating in various cultural activities like art and music. It was also considered a male-only field. Sure, plays and dramas had female characters but all feminine characters were enacted by male artists wearing masks. It was thought that music and other fine arts polluted a woman’s sanctity and interfered with her domestic duties. They were also discouraged from any sort of literary activity including reading and writing. Any woman showing interest in art and literature was not considered innovative, but on the contrary, was seen as indicative of a poor upbringing or bad taste. Some people even considered them to be possessed by the spirits of the devil, keen on bringing doom to the household.

However, women who were determined to remain in their field of interest did remain, and almost stubbornly so. Charlotte Bronte, the famous English novelist, was initially refused by publishers because they didn’t think that her writing would be taken seriously by the literary circles due to her gender. Undaunted, she approached the publishers under a male pseudonym and began to be taken more seriously. Her first work was Jane Eyre, under the name of Currer Bell, which was widely accepted and reprinted. Nobody raised eyebrows or questioned a male author writing about a strong female character. Indeed, it was well that they didn’t dwell too much on that fact. The novel was widely accepted and reprinted zealously. Charlotte’s other sisters, Emily and Anne Bronte also published their initial works under male pseudonyms, and had they not been successful, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights wouldn’t have made the success it enjoys even now. Gradually, it began to be accepted that some women really did excel in what they did.

       Charlotte Bronte

What does this prove? The ability of a person shouldn’t be hindered by a mundane characteristic like gender. Every person has a contribution to be made to society and it is our duty to provide chances to those who deserve to share the spotlight.

Dowry: The Most Deep Rooted Evil of Our society.

"Say No To Dowry"

The problem of dowry has become a serious social evil among the upper castes and middle classes both in towns and villages. Dowry at present is a source of both joy and curse in the society. It is also a joy to the husband and his relatives who get cash, costly dress and utensils, furniture, bedding materials, etc. But, it is a curse to the bride’s parents who have to bear enormous cost to satisfy the unreasonable demands of the bridegroom’s party. A demand of dowry does not diminish even after marriage. The in-laws of the bride are very much ready in Indian homes to inflict harassment, insults and tortures-both mental and physical. When more pressure is put on the bride’s parents, their dear daughter has no other option but to commit suicide to avoid more insult and torture at the hands of the members of her husband’s family.

Women must be empowered. Gender-based inequality should be completely abolished and the position of women in the society should be raised. Women must be taught since girlhood that their life is not useless without marriage. The demand for dowry is just a small part of the picture. It is a little piece of an elaborate web of male privilege and female disempowerment that still pervades our society. The root of the problem lies with a refusal to accept women as equal citizens with equal rights and of equal value and worthy of equal respect. The reason dowry persists is that it is an economic reflection of the values of our society.

It has become a vicious cycle, A man who gives dowry to his daughter plans to take more dowry for his son.

It is high time to take effective steps against this Social evil. It can be rooted out by generating public opinion against it. At the same time it is essential to pass strict laws for the exemplary punishment of the offenders.Say no Dowry and don't worry you are making a right choice rejecting him, If he demands he is never worthy of it.

BRAVER THAN MOST

         Bravery comes in many forms, but the act isn’t just heroism – it’s not about risking your life to do something crazy or to do something out of this world. It’s about sticking to your duty, no matter how dire the circumstances are, and doing your best to uphold your principles that bind you to your duty. Neerja Bhanot is a great example of this philosophy, and her selfless act of courage helped save the lives of many passengers of the flight she was head purser of.

            Terrorists from the Abu Nidal organisation were bent on hijacking a commercial airplane flying from Mumbai to Frankfurt via Karachi. They smuggled themselves on board as flight officers when the plane was refuelling in Karachi. They had planned on taking the plane to Cypress, using the civilians as a bargaining chip for releasing their comrades. What they hadn’t bargained for was that Neerja, being head purser of the cabin crew had managed to convey the hijack code to the cockpit, which enabled the pilot and chief engineers to escape, effectively marooning the plane in Karachi. The terrorists, now at a loss as to how to proceed, threatened to shoot the passengers if the airport didn’t release a pilot. The terrorists arrested the aircraft for over 8 hours, filled with terrified passengers, uncertain about their fate.                          Neerja played an important role in saving their lives. When people were terrified, she did her best to reassure them. She tried to continue the regular routine of the cabin crew by distributing refreshments to the passengers. At one point, the terrorists demanded that the passports of the Americans be collected so that potential hostages could be identified. Neerja and the other members hid the American passports by stuffing them behind seats. When the terrorists were distracted, Neerja and another passenger managed to open the emergency exits and lead the passengers out of the aircraft. Till the last, Neerja was helping passengers out of the aircraft and gave her life trying to shield three children from the bullets fired by the terrorists. Her timely action and presence of mind managed to reduce the casualty to a minimum. She passed away just days before her 23^rd birthday.

            She was given many awards by different organisations and was also received the Ashok Chakra, becoming the youngest Indian to receive this honour. Her story is a lesson, not just because she was brave, but she never abandoned her post even when she could have saved her life, putting the safety of the passengers under her wing above her life.