Empowering Women

We are almost a decade into the twenty first century. But it's still common to hear our domestic helps in India lament about how unlucky she is for being burdened with daughters. Stories on victims of dowry abuse and female infanticide still appear in the News. While one side of India proudly churns out women engineers and entrepreneurs, the other side still struggles, battling against age-old superstitious and irrelevant social stigmas that continue to negatively bolster the already strong patriarchal society. 
 
Almost a century back Rajaram Mohan Roy and other great leaders started the revolution of female emancipation, eradicating Sati and allowing widow re-marriages. But the social evil of Dowry hasn't entirely died. Despite strong laws against Dowry, the vicious cycle of poverty and lack of education, threatens the basic survival of a woman. This fear of social and financial insecurity yields parents into succumbing to the pressures of Dowry, all in a desperate attempt to provide their daughter a man to take care of her. Women are reduced to mere pawns, most of their destinies lying at the hands of the husband and his family. 
 
The most pivotal long-term solution to break this vicious cycle is to empower young women through education. When a woman is confident of being self-sufficient and in establishing her own place in society, she no longer has to be a victim of social charades and irrelevant traditions. As torch bearers of our society, such women hold immense potential to reform the successive generations too. We, at Anand Charity are glad to be supporting Women's Higher Education through our scholarship initiative.
 
It is also imperative that such schemes are complemented with efforts to change the way our society projects the status of a female.  

a) Stigmatizing the roles of girls and the "privileges" of boys at the tender ages leave indelible imprints, manifesting themselves as workplace inequalities, or as abusive relationships. Our present generation of parents have the responsibility of bringing up the next generation by inculcating positive outlooks on the role of a woman, teaching both young boys and girls on how to treat each other, and encouraging more women in professional workforces.  

b) The media for one can play a HUGE role. With televisions conquering even the remotest of villages, the advertisements and regional TV soaps should be tailored such that positive messages are infused through creative and educational programs, helping people to broaden their attitudes and ways of thinking. There needs to be some kind of censorship on the negative impact perpetuated by advertisements like "fair and lovely" (a frustrated father who can't get his dark daughter married off), the chit funds ad that shows the challenges of a broke father to get his daughter married, and see his son off for higher studies... why can't the daughter be shown to fly for higher studies? Movies, and serials portraying women as spiteful and shallow with lives revolving around the husband and his family, need to stop.  

There are several such little steps that need to be taken at a grass-roots level to progressively change society's attitude. But educating women is of the highest priority. Please help us with our initiative to empower talented young rural women and aid them to stand against the atrocities of Dowry and inequality. Please donate here.