 "Women's Day: Civil rights groups call for equality, life sans violence")
On International Women's Day, civil rights organisations called for gender equality, violence-free life and renewed pledge to invest in women's leadership building in the post-pandemic world.
Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi noted that it will be Women's Day in its true sense when no daughter of India will feel insecure to go out alone at any time, when the 6-year-old daughter of the poorest mother in a backward village will dream like my 6-year-old grandson and move shoulder to shoulder with him".
Amitabh Behar, CEO, Oxfam India stressed on the need to stand in solidarity with women's struggles for their rights, dignity, status as workers, farmers, owners of property, as deserving of equal wages and above all a violence-free life.
"If you open newspapers or look at popular conversations, women are either made out to be goddesses or marketed as consumerist products. We need to get back to the roots of why we celebrate women's day, he told PTI.
Oxfam India has also dedicated their annual Trailwalker Challenge to women who were the worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic last year and are still struggling to recover from job loss, violence, health-related challenges and gender-based discrimination.
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The theme of this year's Oxfam Trailwalker Virtual Challenge is #WalkForHer.
Poonam Muttreja, executive director, Population Foundation of India (PFI) said the International Women's Day this year celebrates the leadership of women and girls in shaping more equitable futures as the pandemic recedes.
"International Women's Day (IWD) belongs to all groups and all women everywhere. It honours the story of women's struggles for equality around the world and is symbolic of our collective efforts to ensure human rights and social justice for women," she said.
"When women and girls lead, we see change. Women have been at the forefront of the COVID-19 response across the world, and young women are at the helm of online and on ground movements for social justice, climate change, gender equality and human rights. International Women's Day is a rallying force for individuals, organisations, movements, and groups to come together to ensure 'generation equality'," she added.
Aparajita Gogoi, WRAI, national coordinator and executive director, Centre for Catalyzing Change: COVID-19 Pandemic, highlighted the many ways in which women leaders at grassroots level have been at the forefront of relief and rebuilding activities.
"This International Women's Day, we need to renew pledge to invest in women's leadership building as a way of redoubling recovery efforts in a post-pandemic world," she said.
International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8 around the world.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
