Dr. Neelam Mahendra

The author is a senior columnist

It is a rare privilege to be born as a human being in this God-created world. And when that birth is as a woman, it is a matter of great fortune. Undoubtedly woman is the most beautiful creation of God to whom He has given the ability to create. According to Sanatan culture every creature in the world is a part of God, but Women have been bestowed bysome special qualities by Him. These qualities are naturally found in a woman such as tolerance, softness,  love,abandonment, Sacrifice austerity and affection. It is the mightiesness of the qualities found in a woman that if the qualities of a woman enter in a man, then he attains divinity, but if the qualities of a man enter in a woman, then she takes the form of “Chandi”, the incarnation of Durga, which is destructive. But the same woman, with her feminine natural qualities, becomes “Annapurna” as a housewife and God as a mother. 

If seen, it is necessary for a woman to have these qualities for the responsibilities that God has entrusted upon a woman. Actually in our Sanatan culture, the Ardhanariswara form  of Shiva tells us that man and woman are complementary to each other and not rivals. The fact is that hese qualities of a woman are actually her strength, not weakness. India has been the land where Lord Shri Rama performed Ashwamedha Yagya with a gold idol of Sita mata in her absence. The culture of India is where Lord Krishna  was called Nandlal and at the same time he was also known as Devkinandan and Yashodanandan. Lord Shri Ram was Dashrath Nandan and also KaushalyaNandan as well as Siyawar. India has been a nation where there were vidushi women like Maitraiyi, Gargi, Indrani, Lopamudra full of knowledge about the vedas, and there were also queens like Kaikai who  was not only the charioteer of King Dashrath in a war but also became his life savior in the event of King Dashrath being injured during the war. But despite of such a glorious cultural past of women power, the present-day India has to make  various efforts like celebrating Women's Day to socially empower women. The important fact today is that when we talk about women's rights and gender equality issues, we raise the right issue but deviate from the actual intention. Of course it is true that today women are stepping into every field.  

Be it earth or sky, IT sector or mechanical social service or politics, women are moving forward with confidence. And on the basis of her efficiency, she is also proving her talent. Today, women are sitting on top positions in many countries of the world. Apart from this, in today's era of self-reliant India, many women  entrepreneurs are contributing to the progress of the country. But this is just one side of the picture. The picture has another side also. Actually a survey report of 2021, has revealed that 37 Percentage of women are paid less than men for the same work. 

85 per cent of women say they do not get the same opportunities as men in a job in terms of promotions and salaries. According to this survey report of LinkedIn, even today working women are discriminated against at the workplace. In the case of providing equal opportunities to women to work India ranks 52 in the list of 55 countries. 

It really is disappointing that at one place we organize events like Women's Day at the global level in which we talk about giving women equal rights as men., promotion, But in reality when it comes to issues like providing equal opportunities to women, we are last on the list of countries. 

It is obvious that when this issue is discussed, heavy words like women empowerment to women's liberation and women's liberalism to gender equality come up. And this is where we stray off the issue. 

Because the above discourse begins with the opposition to patriarchal society. This protest begins with women starting to conduct same as men. From men-like clothing to men-like diet, which includes drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes. It is obvious that this movement of women's discourse of the so-called liberals begins with vulgarity in the name of liberalism and ends with mental bankruptcy in the name of equality. 

We must understand that when we talk about gender equality for women, we are talking about gender discrimination against them. The point to understand in this order is that if this gender discrimination were to end only with superficial behavior like women dressing or behaving like men, then it would have ended in the so called developed and modern countries like America and the European Union. But the truth is that women of these countries also are still struggling for their rights. In fact, the important point is that when we talk about gender equality for women's rights, it has an ideological thinking at its core that our treatment towards women as a civilized and developed society or as a family or as an individual is equal,Our thinking is indiscriminated, Our Approach is Similar, The salary given to them for equal work should be equal to that of men and the opportunities they get to move forward in life should be equally available. 

The day when the applicant or employee in any field will be judged on the basis of his or her merit and not on the basis of his being a woman or a man, Only then will we be able to truly serve the purpose of events like Women's Day.