Today’s Guest Blogger Anisha Padhee is a feminist and a women’s rights activist. She has worked with corporates and grassroots organizations, and currently spends her time thinking and writing about gender and other issues. In this article she cynically yet critically examines the meaning of the one day in a year that is dedicated to women — International Women’s Day 

The 8th of March is a busy time of the year for most companies and organizations. Most HR teams are set into a flurry of activities for their “women employees”, women’s rights organizations are having sleepless nights planning yet another innovative event which they “haven’t done in the past.” Women achievers are having a tough time deciding which keynote speaker invite should they accept.  The Finance Minister just announced a scheme for the safety and dignity of women, and in the meanwhile, it also seems befitting that Michelle Obama is giving away the “Woman of Courage” award to the Delhi rape victim[1]. The newspapers will be full of inspiring stories about women come 8^th of March, and will continue reporting for a day after that.

And then, we’ll be overpowered by sudden amnesia. Companies will go about doing their business as usual, development organizations will deal with their programmatic issues, women achievers will (hopefully) continue achieving, the 1000 crores will be in the pockets of corrupt officials sooner than we can spell N-I-R-B-H-A-Y-A, and guess what, women will continue getting raped. Our world will move on.

I know many will call me a cynic. Many will say that I am being too negative. But honestly, the universal promises made by myriad groups to promote gender equality are as good as Mumbai Municipal Corporation promising to cover all potholes before the onset of monsoons. Perpetual lies year after year after year. The same companies which hold elaborate Women’s Day events don’t allow their contract women employees to attend those. In those very companies which talk about diversity, women still earn 70% of what the men earn in the exact same position. The same government which sanctioned the Rs. 1000 crores, possibly forgot that the sum translates to Rs. 1.52 crores per district for a YEAR, a sum that is not enough to even set up one fast track court, let alone make our women safer. And if we were to give awards to dead rape victims, we will run out of all award titles and funds in one go. Because we, as a people, believe that tokenism is enough to bring about social change.

If tokenism really could solve everything, then why are women still getting raped in every nook and corner of this country? Why after all this are we still being told to dress properly and not stay out until dark? Why are women afraid of losing their jobs and thus delaying marriage and pregnancy?  We, as a society, have a lot of growing up to do, and we have to strive hard to actually fulfill our promises. I mean, is it really SO difficult to treat women with respect for who they are, all year round, 24/7? Is it really impossible to treat women as people? Are we so lacking in conscience that we are happy to just present tokenisms towards gender justice and then sit back as if nothing ever happened?

But then, we celebrate women only on ONE day in a year. I rest my case.