International Women’s Day: Celebrating Women’s achievements and Road to Equality

 

By-  Rahul Yadav

Women are the magicians who are making this world a dreamland to live by their participation in the role in various sectors, from a homemaker to an astronaut, and whatnot. Every year, we celebrate International Women’s Day on 8th March to acknowledge the achievements of women across different fields such as social, economic, cultural, science and politics around the globe. It is also observed to raise awareness about gender equality while advocating their rights worldwide.

 What makes this IWD special?

This year’s celebration is special as it marks the 30th anniversary of The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the most progressive and universally accepted global framework for women's and girls’ rights. The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is "For All Women and Girls: Rights, Equality, Empowerment". The campaign ‘Accelerate Action’ is promoted by individuals who advocate women empowerment for gender equality, this year.

 Potential issues
Women showcase the best performance possible when given a chance, and when not given a chance, they courageously take a stand for themselves efficiently. A large number of women still struggle to be heard. The rising number of domestic violence incidents during the COVID-19 lockdown says it all. The number remains alarming across different parts of countries. How can we forget to mention the increasing rape cases not just in India but across the world. Limited access in the education field is another big concern. Policies are made to provide them equal opportunity but the on-ground figures are still demanding significant reform to uplift women. The disparity in the hiring of male and females in most of the sectors is a visible concern with women often receiving lower wages than their male counterparts.
How the government is assisting in the issues?

To empower the women and young girls, the Government of India & state government of Jammu & Kashmir have initiated various schemes to help them stand on their own feet. To help the women entrepreneurs aged between 18 to 45, with minimum qualification of matric or above of the state and are planning to start their business, Women Entrepreneurship Programme (WEP) was launched. It aims to provide them a loan with lower interest rate of 6% and direct loan up to the amount 3 lakh with moratorium period of 6 months through Women Development Corporation. Another scheme, namely ‘Tejaswini’ by J&K govt is for the young women of the state to provide them financial assistance to set-up self-employment ventures as per the skills, training, aptitude and local conditions. The scheme also provides soft-finance for setting up new units, expanding and modernizing the pre-existing ventures.

 Moreover, the ‘Spurring Entrepreneurship Initiative’ was launched to offer financial assistance between 2.0 lakh to 20 lakh to the youth in the age group of 18 to 40 years of the state for establishing business units with the purpose of encouraging innovation and job creation through creation of new businesses and expansion of existing businesses. Under this scheme 25% of the cases financed in a particular financial year are reserved for women.

Role of society in Women Empowerment
While the gov is taking significant steps, society also needs to ponder upon their actions so as to make the environment suitable for the womens where they can participate and contribute in the society and showcase their talent without the fear of discrimination and unfairness. A truly inclusive society will enable more women to achieve success and fulfil their dreams just like Kiran Bedi, Sushma Swaraj, Bhagyashree Thipsay, Chetna Sinha, Bachendri Pal, Sudha Murthy, Karnam Malleswari, Mary Kom, Shivani Singh and many others who have fought against all the odds.