VOF WEEK 4:( know Thyself)

Wrapping up my Vision by scribbling some of my heart felt desires and longing is a small step towards unfolding myself and my womanhood. I am a human- my womanhood flows form the stream of humanism. My world of humanism encompasses every little bud enjoying its natural endowment of full bloom, every bird singing to the tunes of his/her heart, each passing moment floating through peaceful transition and every foetus completing its enigmatic journey of finding cosy nest into its mothers womb to the warmth of its mothers lap…….. You may call it a dream reverie but I certainly want to wake up to my visionary world from the very next morning.

While illustrating my vision through my words, my mind swings through the disturbing images of ‘frightened little Sunita’ tied with the grill of a veranda, helplessly awaiting punishment for her alleged involvement in stealing some valuables from her employer’s house alongside the smiling faces of her neighbours. But I could draw solace from the fact that finally police came to her rescue. Though it is a common site in my area to see children working in hotels, construction sites, girls traversing little trodden forest ways barefooted overburdened with wood logs, children getting drenched in rain for long hours while accompanying their mothers in transplanting season and so on ………

All these in the country of Lord Krishna (the child god), who inspired us to look for divinity in every living soul. Yet we hardly treat such arduous labour as a grave threat to the holistic development of a child. Rather we found a unique solution of tackling population pressure and unemployment through initiating them into such profession from early on. Not only that, many of my fellow citizens are selectively eliminating the female foetuses to deny them even a single moment under the sun.

No, my vision never gets cringed by such disturbing images rather it fills the void created instantaneously by broadening my thinking horizon. My country has enough laws to safeguard the rights of children but unwillingness of implementing agencies to enforce laws accordingly coupled with victims ignorance have complicated the matter even more. Having said that I can’t also ignore the fact that the existing infrastructure is insufficient in our country to guarantee the constitutional right to life without any discrimination on the basis of cast, creed, gender, religion, economic and political status to its ever burgeoning population. Therefore the onus is on us. We have to strive to bring changes however small our effort is……. May be helping children attend school by sensitizing privileged society to extend its help through ‘adopt a child policy’ in addition to lobbying with implementation agencies for making all inclusive curriculums to accommodate a greater number of student. I always believe that numbers get multiplied if our efforts find its true direction.

While trying to make the world a better place for future progeny, I want to delve into the origin of some problems that start even before their conception. Most of their mothers get married by the age of 18 to face unwanted abortion several times before hearing their weak smile. The mothers entrusted with the responsibility of providing food and water for their families have to brave the scorching sun for hours to collect a bucket of water. Their searching eyes pose before the world the most repeated question ‘why don’t we have access to safe drinking water when nature has endowed everyone with plenty.’

Today the problem of mankind is the same everywhere- poverty, hunger, unequal distribution and access to resources, escalating violence, widening gap between have and have not groups. The unjust distribution is more pronounced in the case of women as fallout of patriarchal system in place for ages. In my search to help women from my area to help themselves, I found worldpulse a trusted friend. It has opened the ‘solution gate’ before me.

If we want a more gender just world, we certainly have to voice the present inequalities and the ways to eliminate the oppressive mechanisms fostering such inequalities. As a correspondent of worldpulse, I would get the opportunity of exploring ways for building leadership among women, increasing negotiating abilities for accessing resources and overall empowerment.