The idea of a woman

Last week couple of young college students from CRY come over asking for donations for the education of a girl child. They come to our home to discuss this. But of course they want to talk to the man of the household- the one who probably has the control over money, the maximum power to make decisions. So I sit there and listen as my husband tells them that he already donates to CRY regularly (which he does!), they look a bit disappointed, they want a cheque right away before the new year. All the while I am sitting right there! They haven’t looked at me once. I ask them if they would like a donation from me – I gave them a cheque for Rs 6000, that I hope will go to good use, helping the girl child, who will one day grow into a WOMAN, who is educated, and can in the future go on to change the definition of the word “woman”.


I am writing this because – this is the state of our society. It is this “idea” of who a woman is, what her role, her place in society is– that is the cause of the crimes against the woman. It is strange that we have all these NGO’s fighting for the rights of the girl child and yet it is not about the girl child. It is about human rights, why is she any different? The day we redefine what it means to be a woman will be the day we will finally be able to safely step out alone with whoever we choose, at any time in the day/night, wearing whatever we want. It’s not going to be easy, this fight against the “false” idea of the woman. We need to put our gloves back on.