Women's Day

Our celebration of "Women's day " is just limited to wishing everybody around and making ourselves look a little different and important!!!…But is this what is truly required??? See the article below…an article which i got through a mail...something for all of us to think about.


The little girl called Munni, who works as a chhuttak (Bambaiya for freelance domestic) in several neighbourhood homes is not sure how old she is. "Ummm... 12? No, i'm 15," she says. I'd say she's nine, going by her body structure. Her mother Rajji is also a chhuttak. Between them, they earn nearly Rs 3,000. This amount is handed over to the out-of-work man-of-the-house and his wastrel son (a teenager who spends his time loitering around). Rajji is worried about Munni's marriage. But she's just a child i remind her. "Not in our community," she says stiffly. "Besides, Munni's father has not arranged for her dowry. Which means, i'll have to borrow money from memsaabs."The question of those memsaabs financing Munni's education does not arise. "Impossible, she will turn wayward like her brother. She may even get spoilt,"dismisses Rajji. 'Spoilt' is a code word for 'raped'. Munni has no say in any decision, even though she contributes 50% of the family's income. I wonder what Munni thinks of the other little girls whose rooms she sweeps and dusts? Does she ever feel tempted to pinch their dolls, try on fancy frocks, spray teen cologne, pocket those Rs 100 notes strewn on the dresser, smear makeup and rest her emaciated body on that inviting bed with the cuddly duvet? Does Munni feel resentful, envious at the sight of those pampered girls, munching junk food, while chatting on the latest cell-phone? Does she curse her fate and hate her parents for forcing her to clean-up after these bratty kids leave used sanitary napkins for her to discard? Munni is curious, bright, cheerful and hard-working. Sometimes, i think she's far happier than those pampered girls who barely notice her unobtrusive presence. Munni doesn't have to stress over boy-friends or break-ups, chipped nail polish, the wrong hair colour, or her parents' impending divorce. Conversely, what she should worry about is the unspoken. Munni risks being beaten, starved, sexually abused (by her own, or by strangers in the homes she is employed), kidnapped, sold, or even killed. But she is innocent and oblivious. She trusts her mother and unquestioningly follows her instructions. About her father and brother, she is reluctant to say much, except that she knows it's her 'duty' to help them. Help them drink, gamble, visit sex-workers, infect her own frail mother? Perhaps, Rajji is aware of such a future and wants to spare little Munni by getting her married at the earliest. Rajji has seen two other women from her slum being thrown out of their huts after being diagnosed HIV-positive, post-their husbands' death from AIDS. I heard her crying once and asked whether she'd been beaten yet again. "I'm used to the beating," she sobbed, "this time i'm really afraid. If something happens to Munni's father, i will be on the street, then what?" She'd seen other women losing their homes after their husbands had succumbed to the deadly virus. The tragedy is that while money pours in for awareness programmes, very little is allocated to its secondary victims — mainly young widows and children. They have nowhere to go and are left to die near garbage piles. Nobody wants to employ them once they're 'tainted' and few agencies bother to rehabilitate these unfortunate creatures, claiming a paucity of funds. Some widows turn to prostitution, others sell their children to out-of-state agents, in the desperate hope that those kids will manage to survive, somehow. Most don't. As another International Women's' Day rolls up, and the usual suspects present papers at high-profile seminars, Rajji and Munni will be as busy on March 8th as they are everyday of the year. With any luck, a generous memsaab may offer them a cup of chai before she heads off to make a speech at some 5-star venue. The memsaab's intentions maybe noble but how do they help Rajji and Munni?

Don’t we all have a moral responsibility towards such underprivileged people?? Probably helping them should be our way of marking the “Women’s day Celebration!!!”