Women's usual indifference to themselves keeps them from realising their potential, writer-activist C S Lakshmi said while emphasising that "nothing is more empowering for women than self awareness".
"There are several ways of women empowerment. And I feel nothing is more empowering than knowledge. They need to know about their own lives," Lakshmi said here during an International Women's Day event last night.
Recalling a story, which was inspired by a neighbour's life, Lakshmi said her neighbour could not recognise herself in the story.
"When I showed her the story she liked it very much and asked me where do I get such good ideas. I couldn't bring myself to tell her that it was her story. But I realised it is the lack of knowledge about oneself that she couldn't recognise herself in the story.
"I think it is very important to provide them with the knowledge to make them aware of the importance of their own lives," Lakshmi said.
While recalling an event where widows were given sewing machins, she emphasised on the need to change how women empowerment is seen in India.
"There is nothing wrong with sewing machines, but how can you empower women by making them do the same thing they have done all their lives?" Lakshmi said.
The author, who goes by the pen name Ambai, is also the founder and director of India's first and only women's archive- Sound & Picture Archives for Research on Women (SPARROW).
She decided to start an archive because she felt there was a "dearth of information on women in the textbooks".
"We came across photos, stories, portraits, drawings of women and so much material that we felt all this has to be documented.
"History of women is endless. Every woman carries a history within herself. It is important. How will you make policies for women without knowing their history," the writer said.
According to Lakshmi, the women for the archive are chosen from all walks of life but not restricted to famous women.
"We have chosen women from all walks of life. But we also archived a story of a woman who walked from Burma to Mumbai during World War II.
"Someone may ask how a woman walking from Burma to Mumbai is feminist. There is nothing feminist about the walk, but the wish of an 80-year-old woman to have the tale recorded is definitely feminist and it needs to be archived," she said.
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