& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

International Women’s Day

Notes from History

by A H Monjurul Kabir
THE significance of a distinct International Worn en's Day (8 March) means a little to the most of the women around the globe who are trapped in to a vicious circle of violence, denial. deprivation and discrimination. They commence their each day with struggle for survival. A Bangladeshi woman raped tn a rail station of Calcutta find strange similarity with a woman buttered, abused in a tube station in London or a woman raped In a street of New York. Unfortunately the so-called globalised world determined to impose its moral values and Judgements on everyone In the planet dismally failed to make this world a sale place for women.
Down Memory Lane
International Women's Day. It is asserted, is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it Is rooted in the cen-turles-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. In ancient Greece. Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war; during the French Revolution. Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality, fraternity" marched on Versailles to demand women's suffrage. The idea of an International Women's Day first arose at the turn of the century, which in the industrialised world was a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies. Following chronology of the most important events can be an eye opener to. many:
1909
In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate it on the last Sunday of that month through 1913.
1910
The Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women's Day. international In character, to honour the movement lor women's rights and to assist in achieving universal suffrage for women. The proposal was greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, v/hich included the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament. No fixed date was selected for the observance.
1911
As a result of the decision taken at Copenhagen the pp vi-ous year. International Women's Day was marked for the first time (19 March) in Austria. Denmark. Germany and
Switzerland, where more than one million women and men at tended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded the right to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.
Less than a week later, on 25 March, the tragic Triangle Fire in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working girls, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This event had a significant impact on labour legislation in the Unfed States, and the working conditions leading up to I he disaster were invoked during subsequent observances of International Women's Day.
1913-1914
As part of the peace m ve-ment brewing on the ev. of World War I. Russian women observed their first Interna-
tional Women's Day on the last Sunday in February 1913. Elsewhere In Europe, on or around 8 March of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with their sisters.
1917
With 2 million Russian soldiers dead in the war. Russian women again chose the last Sunday in February to strike for "bread and peace'. Political leaders opposed the timing of the strike, but the women went on anyway. The rest is history; Four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote. That historic Sunday fell on 23 February on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia, bi it on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere.
Since those early years. International Woman's Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women's movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women's conferences, has helped make the commemoration a unifying point for co-ordinated efforts to demand women's rights and participation In the political and economic process. This date Is also designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic. cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day. they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.
Challenges of Globalisation
The campaign to promote and protect the equal rights of women promoted by the United Nations have generated more Intense and widespread support compared to other UN ventures. The Charter of the United Nations. signed in San Francisco in 1945. was the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental human right. Since then, the Organisation has helped create a historic legacy of internationally agreed strategies, standards. programmes and goals to advance the status of women world-wide.
In many countries, the equal enjoyment of human rights has been written into law. The world has identified violence against women in its various forrns as a clear violation of women's rights. Laws have been enacted, at the international, regional and national levels, to confront what should always have been considered unconscionable.
Yet. much remains to be done. There are daunting challenges. both new and old. At the forefront of the new is the way women are affected by the negative side of globalisation. Women are usually the first to lose their jobs as governments restructure and companies retrench. Poverty among women — especially heads of households and older women -- appears to be deepening. Women are more likely to be unemployed or underemployed. If employed, they are more likely than men to be found in poorly paid and insecure jobs.
Rededicate ourselves to eliminating the discrimination and disadvantage to which women are still subjected, can make a real difference.