This time on From the Venus, I write how women of our country can be of great help in making India a better place. Women are a source of a massive untapped energy that needs to be exposed in the correct way. And if this resource is utilised in the right way, we can surge ahead towards development at the speed of light.
To all my male readers, believe me, even after writing this piece of article I am very much on your side.
Solving Kashmir and Naxalism:
The issues of Kashmir and Naxalism are fairly identical in nature. Though the problem of Kashmir is graver and has been in existence since division, it shares lot of similarities with Naxalism.
The victims of both the cases are the commoners of the land who have been neglected by the successive governments that first promised them world in the name of development and then delivered nothing. The Armed Forces (Special Power) Act has made the valley a breeding ground for miscreants.
Apparently many ‘messiahs’ stood up for the poor people of these disturbed area, who showed them a new light. They promised to give what the Indian Government only promised and never give. Subsequently they pulled the masses on their side. Once the masses were on their side they gave them stones and guns to attack their enemy- The Indian Government.
I am not here to judge whether what happened was right or wrong, but now that these movements are against the values of democratic India itself, I thought its time mothers and sisters take over.
The first task that government of India needs to do the most is to get the common masses on their side and “bonus packages” are not the only way to it. The Indian Government must win them psychologically. The government can use the women power to accomplish this task. They can use the women in Armed forces, socially active women or even the journalists working in these troubled areas; let them loose, let them be themselves. If they intermingle with the local women in the area, they can help in winning back the trust of rebels by convincing the natives, what all can Government of India offer them. After all a woman is a woman’s best friend. Also psychologically it is easier to win a woman. Making two men sit and talk may be the toughest task. Where as we only need to make two women sit together, dialogue will start automatically.
Its time India uses its pawn.
Education-Population-Unemployment
These three problems are persisting at large in our country, and we must stop regarding it as an inescapable aspect of human condition. Over a very short period of time, poverty and infant mortality rate can be reduced dramatically, while gender equality and education can be dramatically advanced. World is full of such examples, and rural women of Pallakad district in Kerela along with Dr Prabhakar have proved it too.
It is no accident that the micro-credit is provided only to women. In most of the world, poverty has a female face. They experience poverty more than men. Generally when money is given to a man it seldom tickles down to the family. Women take far more serious responsibility of bringing up their children, and they bear the brunt of this task. The result is that when women are empowered, family is empowered.
Also statistics have proven that families in which women are educated have lesser children, than otherwise. Education introduces family planning to women. They use protections and take necessary precautions. They are less likely to get influenced and exploited by external factors. Also a child spends most part of the day with his mother, it is necessary that mother is educated, so that she can share her knowledge with her children and thus help in bringing up a good family and hence contribute towards making a superior society.
Overpopulation is one of the chief reasons for unemployment in the county and raising lesser number of children for increasing employment opportunities may sound childish, but it somehow makes sense if its impact is studied over a long period of time.
I conclude, educate the mothers, enhance the society.
Other side of the Indian Sports
When we talk about sports in India, the first thing that strikes us is cricket, then the Indian National Men Cricket Team. Of the 5 pages allotted to sports section in the morning newspaper, 3 pages are filled with news of cricket or cricketers (male). The other two pages are filled with news related to the loss suffered by the Indian Men’s National Team in hockey, table tennis, basketball, swimming, etc. After reading all this we wind up thinking that the Indian sports’ condition is very dismal. Now check this out.
Joshna Chinappa, India’s best Squash player, was the first Indian girl to win the British Squash Championship title in 2003 in the under 19 category. She is currently ranked 31 in the world. Anjali Bhagwat, a rifle shooter from India, won four gold in the individual and pairs events of Air rifle and Smallbore Rifle in the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Saina Nehwal, Indian badminton player, currently ranked number 3 in the world, completed a hat-trick this year by winning the Indian Open, Indonesian Open and Singapore Open. This resulted in her rise to 3rd ranking and subsequently to No. 2 in the world. MC Mary Kom, a female boxer from Manipur and also a mother of two, came back from a two-year sabbatical to clinch her fourth successive World Amateur boxing gold in 2008, a feat that prompted the International Boxing Association to describe her as 'Magnificent Mary'. Earlier she had won the same in 2002, 2005, 2006 as well.
If that wasn’t all, Indian women's national field hockey team won Gold for three consecutive years: during the 2002 Commonwealth Games (the event which inspired the 2007 Bollywood hit film, Chak De India), the 2003 Afro-Asian Games, and the 2004 Asia Cup. Indian National Women Cricket team reached the finals of the Woman’s World Cup last year losing only to Australia in finals. Nevertheless it won Asia cup successively from 2004-06 and 2008.
In addition to that have you ever heard of any scams involved in female versions of a sport, like the male’s version? And the one that takes place are the one that is done by the male coaches of the women team.
India is on its way to become a ‘Sporting Superpower’, as far as women sports are concerned.
Taking care: from Economy to Rehabilitations:
There is a general misconception about women in India that puts different labels on them, from cultural cartoons to western wannabes. But Indian women have demonstrated stratospheric level of aspiration-85 percent aspire to do a top job, double that of their counterparts in US. While 85% women consider themselves very ambitious, only 65% of Chinese feel the same (this may be partially due to the fact that the concept of female ambition is seen though a negative prism in china, unlike in India). The childcare issues drag down the career dreams of Indian women to a far lesser degree than their western sisters. Thanks to the existence of joint families, inexpensive domestic help and an increasingly wide range of day-care option. Hence the educated women are one of the chief engines of the dynamic economy of India.
Indian woman have shown great spirits in running NGOs.The same can be used in rehabilitation work that is being carried out in various parts of India. Their sense of event management is unmatchable.
Even in politics, which was once believed to be a man’s domain, they have proven that they are capable of handling everything (other than the finance ministry).
