A Vision To Unlock The Feminine Potential And Celebrate The Creativity

When we were small,we learned how to start a fire by focusing sunlight through a magnifying glass. Sunlight alone, could not start the fire. It had to be focused through the magnifying glass. This basic principle reflects in the vision of our lives. It must be focused, to produce results.

Our vision must inspire us ,equip us and ultimately create a unique us, to unlock our full 'feminine' potential.

About four months ago,in Delhi, when a young girl got brutally gang raped on a moving bus, the misogynists and rape apologists of my society,were quick to offer their excuse .Their solution was defilement and victim blaming.

In India,every day there is a new story of some kind of horrific sexual assault against women. Every day i hear people, politicians, educated men and women (including some of my friends) spreading the message that rape is somehow the victims' fault.

I envision a society where the victim is never blamed for the crime. I want my women to live "guilt free" in a country that believes in punishing the rapists and not debasing the victim.

My friend, Ayisha, an educated, modern girl, loved a boy but could not marry him as he belonged to a different caste. Her parents believed that if she married someone against their choice,it would bring shame and dishonor to their family.

My vision is a future where "family's honor" does not depend or restrict the choice of any woman of my society. The constant pressure of upholding the family name ( or izzat in Hindi) ,in order to appease the patriarchal society, brings immense psychological and social duress to a woman. I want my country to view them as independent individuals,and not as extensions of their male counterparts' identity and honor.

Indians like to proudly call their nation- Mother India and worship Mother Goddess in different manifestations. But this reverence is restricted only to few words in reality.On one end, we worship Goddess in the form of Mother and at the other end, we are constantly killing the most precious gift of nature- the girl child.

I envision a future where girls have the right to live. They enjoy the right to freedom, education and equal nutrition. I want a future where no parents would desire an abortion, if the ultrasound test, detects a girl.

Though times are slowly changing, the reality of women's lives remain invisible to most and the mere fact that "Women hold up half the sky"- does not appear to give them the position of equality in our society.Therefore, it becomes the collective responsibility for all of us to contribute in alleviating women's position in society.

My responsibility towards alleviating their position would be by sharing the stories of the unheard. Empowering and encouraging others to find a leader in themselves and to help unlock their true 'feminine' potential.

Being a Voices of our Correspondent will help me in overcoming the barriers and will magnify my voice. It will make my individual efforts,powerful enough to bring change.

Through World Pulse, i have seen the global power sisterhood can hold. I have interacted with other applicants and came to know that somewhere we all share the same dream. Being a VOF, i can initiate, debate and produce solutions and ideas that would help in bettering the position of women in my society and also reach out to others.

Empowerment does not hold any meaning unless women are strong , alert and conscious of their rights. VOF serves as that medium of empowerment for me.

I have a vision of the type of leader i want to be. I know i have to start NOW. VOF will help me in telling a different (and better) story of women of my country, 10 years from now.