''No Struggle Can Ever Succeed Without

Women Participating Side by Side With

Men"
It was a Sunday afternoon, and place was New Delhi. Apart from who’s who of the city,
room was packed with budding entrepreneurs, social activists and students from the
University of Delhi and IIT-Delhi. The Speaker was a known face in the field of policy
affairs and economics. “Now before I conclude, does anyone have any question to ask?”
he said.

A hand rose in the air, “Sir you said while the world is eagerly waiting for the elephant to
dance, the elephant cannot dance with two limbs tied. Now I understand that women need
to be taken along if we are to develop, but shouldn’t our focus be on more pressing
matters? World over and India, in particular, is facing many emergencies like the
Humanitarian crisis, Terrorism, Refugee Crisis, Financial Crisis, Security issues, Energy
crisis, diplomatic wars etc. More than 250 mn people in India are below the poverty line. A
third of our children are malnourished. Food security and ensuring access to water are
formidable challenges in themselves, and then we have a bulging demographic dividend,
which if not tapped, can become a demographic liability. Shouldn’t our focus be first on
them? In West, issues of women were addressed only after society attained some degree
of standard of living for all. Should we not learn from history?”

The speaker smiled, and after a sombre pause said, “Some of the problems you mentioned
are there because we failed to take women along in our story of development, and some
others cannot be addressed without taking women along.

George Santayana, a famous philosopher said: “Those who do not know

history’s mistakes are doomed to repeat them”.

You mentioned West. In Europe, the two world wars created a demographic crisis, with
young men perishing or becoming handicapped in the two gory wars, forcing these
societies to accept women going outside the homes, seeking employment, and sustaining
family. It is this lesson we need to learn.

Not only this, an attentive glance through history and evolution of human being shows the
importance of women in the development of mankind. To be frank, the very struggle of
human existence through evolution is incomplete without women. So, not only historically,
even biologically and naturally, women command a strong position.

When the world was experiencing the fierce wars of all times (mostly fought by men), it was
women providing the basic support (emotion, affection and motivation) to not only family but
also as a quality labour (financial and strategic) in developing goods and war materials.
Ironically, when a man claims all the success of life, be it as a ruler, as a successful entrepreneur,
as a world leader or as a guiding light for national and social development, he forgets the invisible
support of women providing the inner peace of mind while achieving all this. He forgets the
foundational values that man carries in his journey to become a successful person have come from
a woman (mother/sister/wife). He forgets that behind his existence there is a woman.

It was once truly said that “behind every successful man, there is a woman”

The struggle of mankind is an evolutionary phenomenon and historical references are just
a part of it. In today’s world of interconnectedness where economic, political, social,
technological and environmental battle (struggle) is involved, women’s role has become
even more important. It is simply impossible to imagine facing this battle without women
being part of the association.

World over, women have proved their mettle in almost every aspect involving the
aforementioned domains. From a great ‘Thinker’ like Simone de Beauvoir to a great
‘Scientist’ like Marie Curie, the struggle has not stopped yet. They are the major
stakeholders of the world resources and one of the key policymakers occupying centre-
stage in economic and political development of numerous nations as inferred from icons
like Angela Merkel, Aung San Suu Kyi, to name a few.

Their achievement has surpassed the Earth’s canopy reaching to Space in 21st century.
All this was made possible by the constant struggle and undeterred determination to
shoulder men side by side.

India today is fighting battles across multiple fronts, each requiring energy and efforts. In
each of them, women have a role to play.

India is going to surpass China in near future to become the most populous country. Many
of our development gains are neutralized due to rising population. Containing this pace of
population growth is even more necessary as resources of the country are limited.
Studies from across the world tell that in societies where women are educated, and part
of labour force, the fertility rate is low and population growth is controlled.

Of the 3Ds (Democracy, Demography and Demand) that our Prime Minister often iterates as
strength of India, perhaps the most important one is Demography. Over 65% population is
below age of 30, and half of it are females. Without creating opportunities to channelize
this half of our human resource capital, we are unlikely to tap the demographic dividend.
Studies show that in households where women are educated and are earning, there is
more likelihood of marriage in later years, fewer cases of malnutrition among children,
higher school attendance and better health indicators.

In the struggle to make an inclusive society, the role of women is immense as can be seen
from India’s rank (108/44) in World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap index. By
involving women workforce effectively, our GDP can be doubled in no time providing a
strong economic backbone to the nation.

It is often criticized that while ‘India’ has progressed, ‘Bharat’ continues to lag far behind.
Rural development and agriculture remain a story of limited success. As per Socio-
Economic Caste Census (2011), average monthly earning of a household in rural India is
Rs 6000. Farmer suicide is a sad reality, with every hour one farmer taking his life away
due to failure to repay loan (average loan amount being Rs 27,000).

Where does a woman come into the picture? Everywhere

Over the years, with increasing mechanization of agriculture, opportunities for women to
work in farms have shrunk, seriously impacting household income. This is reflected in a
study by University of Maryland wherein it finds that almost half the women employed in
MGNREGA were employed in manual labour for first time, indicating shortage of supply of
jobs and not of demand. And what’s more is the fact that rural India continues to be major
source of demand of Indian economy. So if we are to ensure a sustainable household
income, it will benefit whole economy.

Even after 7 decades of independence, one may ask whether we have been able to attain
objectives of constitution. How come is it that even today political parties can win votes on
the basis of promise of free food and electricity? Is it really success of our welfare state or
a symbol of our failure to ensure inclusive growth? Issues that really matter are not getting
sufficient attention. Access to water, sanitation, good health facilities, quality education –
all these are the ones that should be dominating electoral debates.

But instead, debate is revolving around mandal-kamandal politics. All these are matters in
which women are direct stakeholders and without their participation, success is difficult, if
not unlikely, to come by.

India has lesser number of woman parliamentarians than even Pakistan and
Bangladesh. Without increasing their numbers, one cannot expect issues that affect
women directly be taken up.

Change and progress in any society begin with family, and parents are the first role model.
At young age, we accept many habits and lessons subconsciously. One of the
perpetrators of Nirbhaya rape confessed to having watched his father abusing his mother
in front of him, creating feeling of asserting his masculinity by inflicting violence on the
victim. In families where women are respected, and given freedom, children are more
likely to grow up with liberal mindsets, thus creating an ideal base for just society.

Additionally, in a country like India, religion plays an overwhelming influence, in both good
and bad way. Religion can be a positive force or a negative one, depending on how one
takes it.

To be a force of positive change, it needs to become open and inclusive, and shed its
orthodoxy. In almost all religions, orthodoxy is closely associated with patriarchy. Whether
it is triple talaq, or entry of women into temples, rigid attitude of clergy, and secondary
treatment of women has been a sad reality. While taking women along is necessary, but
that by itself is not enough.

Governments the world over are new seeing the global dimension of a number of
environment problems, such as climate change, ozone depletion, dumping of hazardous
wastes, destruction of biological resources and of forests and the impact of desertification
therefore, the need to protect the environment became imperative.

Women have recorded successes in solving environmental problems all over the world by
taking the role of managers or maintainers of the natural environment, rehabilitators of the
natural environment in the sense of sustainable development, as innovators in the use of
appropriate technology in the creation of new environments and as an activist or
conservationist.

The priority of the world is towards Sustainable Development- of which women are a
primary part of.

As the world population passes 7 billion people, reducing maternal mortality and
achieving universal access to reproductive health is critical to sustainability.

We need to create conditions to tap their potential and make them co-partners in the
process of development. Beginning has to be made from home, school and politics.

At home, woman must be given freedom to decide their future. Men must share the
burden of household duties so that women can go out and work.

In school, gender sensitivity should be made part of curriculum.

And in politics, political parties must give tickets to women. Care needs to be taken that
candidates should be self-made women who can act as role models in society. For
example, in Andhra Pradesh, women from Self Help Groups are encouraged to
participate in Panchayat elections, and those Panchayats where women get elected as
Chairperson, they get additional grants.

The struggle to achieve inclusive economic, social, sustainable and technological development
in today’s competitive world is nothing less than impossible without the participation of
woman being part of our mainstream agenda. There cannot be any policy that will end
poverty from the world without the inclusive growth of women, there cannot be an
inclusive political development of the nation, if women are not part of decision making,
there cannot be fulfillment of sustainable development goals, if women are not taken into
account, there cannot be any growth in economic sphere, if there is no womenomics and
there cannot be a moral or value based development of society if women are neglected
and subjugated behind the veil of home.

Let us end with a story. The year of 1991 is known as watershed year in India’s economic
history. But something else happened that year. Something less known, and its
significance less acknowledged. In Dubhagata village in Nellore district in Andhra
Pradesh, women were engaged in adult literacy programs as part of National Literacy
Campaign. When they came together, the issue of increasing alcoholism in men and
consequent domestic abuse and squandering of money came up, triggering a
spontaneous social movement against Arrack (local alcohol). The movement was not
organized by any political leadership. It was women who participated and formed the
ground support. The movement spread throughout the State, becoming a major electoral
issue and eventually forcing a change in party in power.
This incidence has a lot of lessons for society to learn- social, political and economic.

“There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of woman is improved. It is
not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing.”– Swami Vivekananda