International Women’s Day (IWD) is one day in the year when women across the globe get to celebrate their womanhood and their achievements, as well as their contributions to society, to nations, and to the world. It is an opportunity to recognise and honour the women in our lives – past and present.
The theme for International Women’s Day 2016 is Pledge for Parity, providing a global opportunity for men and women to pledge their support to help accelerate gender parity. All over the world, women continue to contribute to the social, political, economic and cultural successes. United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon has said, "Let us devote solid funding, courageous advocacy and unbending political will to achieving gender equality around the world. There is no greater investment in our common future." The UN’s 2016 theme, “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality” willreflect on how toaccelerate the 2030 Agenda, and building momentum to successfully implement the new Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal Numbers Four and Five, which are, to Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning, and to Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, respectively.
Coming to the national level, the Government of India has initiated various schemes and programmes to promote women empowerment in India. The National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW) under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, aims to empower and uplift the status of women and children, and to bring about their overall development. Taking a step further from this stance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while speaking at the recent National Conference of Women Legislators in New Delhi, has called for women-led development, instead of women development.
What about the place of women and girls in Nagaland? They are often believed to be better off than their counterparts in the rest of the country, but as we are all witnesses to the realities, there is still plenty of room for improvement. And time seems to move even slower when change is overdue. When the rest of the world is deliberating on Gender Parity/ Planet 50-50 by 2030, and Women Led Development, what does that mean for us here?
Is it incongruousto bring home the enthusiasm surrounding the world’s international women’s day celebrations? The challenge to bring the society to recognise the contributions of women has been enormous and the women before us have struggled their way through, be it in the social, economic, political, or educational fields. What we should all recognise and appreciate, is that when women are empowered, it is only in order to bring about a winning state for everyone.
On this significant day, the State Resource Centre for Women – Nagaland chapter would like to congratulate and applaud all the women of Nagaland, and particularly pay our respects to our trail blazers who have had enormous courage and strength to lead the way, defying all odds and disobliging circumstances. They have paved the way for us, and we have come this far because of them.
Our concerted efforts must continue to drive to an end the overwhelming challenge of gender disparity. What we ought to think of, most of all at this juncture, is - what kind of a future would we want to leave behind for our children and the generations following them? The Iroquois (North American Indigenous peoples) have the Seven Generation stewardship concept that urges the current generation of humans to live and work for the benefit of the future seven generations who are coming behind them. This concept holds that the generations we are sworn to protect and revere are the seven we are most immediately connected to. This certainly ensures sustainability in all decisions we make. And if not anything else, this should prompt us to take progressive steps to bring about change in our own circles.
Let us start building supportive environments and working towards eliminating conscious and unconscious biases around us. Starting from our own homes and families is how each of us can begin to move towards our pledge for parity.
State Resource Centre for Women- Nagaland Chapter
