The International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on 8th March every year to mark the contribution of women to society across the globe. The UN Women’s theme for IWD- 2017 is “
Women in the changing world of work: Planet 50:50 by 2030” with the campaign
hash tag # BeBoldForChange. It calls out for a strong and powerful message worldwide, to work towards gender equality. The idea of this theme is to consider and develop strategies in fulfilling the commitment made by the International community in achieving the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Goal 5 of the SDGs is to:
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Some of the key targets to achieve the 2030 Agendas are:
- By 2030, to ensure all girls and boys complete free, equality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and Goal-4 effective learning outcomes.
- By 2030, to ensure all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education.
- To end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls ever where.
- To eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.
- To eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation
Looking at the ambitious goals set by the UN and reflecting on the current scenario of our State, we definitely have a long way to go in achieving holistic empowerment of women. In the globalized and digitalized world we live in today, there is increasing challenge faced by women to be adequately equipped to fit into the changing world of work. Enhancing the quality of education, exploring unconventional forms of vocational training, preventing the drop-out rate and encouraging higher education are some key indicators that must be focused upon.
Women must be economically empowered, for them to gain confidence to participate and involve in any socio-political forum. With the advent of education, many women have chosen to establish themselves as career oriented women rather than being confined within the four walls of their homes. They have also begun to establish a strong foothold as bureaucrats. It is very encouraging to see women entrepreneurs doing exceptionally well. Women have also entered into different field, which were earlier stereotyped as male domain. As per 2011 census out of the total work force, women contribute to about 43.81 % in the state.
However, women are more vulnerable due to the growing informality of labour (unorganized sector), unstable livelihoods and incomes, which needs be addressed in the context of women’s economic empowerment. Women are seen engaged in unorganized sectors as daily wage laborers, vegetable vendors and domestic help etc. Women also carry forth the traditional works like weaving, cooking and stitching etc. Apart from their conventional roles of attending to the welfare of the household, women have worked alongside men in society-building, and improvement of the standards of life and pursuit of other goals. Women have additional responsibilities to take care of domestic work and also handle work in the offices or various agricultural activities.
It is unfortunate that women are subjected to different forms of violence which are often hushed due to stigma attached to it. The 181-Women Helpline (WHL) and One Stop Center (OSC) were launched in Nagaland in June, 2016. Within four months of its introduction, 181- WHL recorded 44 cases - 6 cases of domestic violence, 1 rape case, 2 obscene call cases, and the rest relating to other crimes against women. Meanwhile, OSC recorded a total of 7 cases in the same year. With the year just beginning, 181-WHL has already recorded 2 cases of violence against women. There are many instances where the victims hesitated to approach the Police or the appropriate authorities in spite of the assurance of full assistance. There are many cases which are not reported. Generally young girls are preferred to be kept as domestic help and there are many cases of them being abused; women are vulnerable to being subjected to sexual harassment at workplace which are not often discussed or reported; women are victims of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation and cheap labour. And the list goes on. (
The challenges are many. All key stakeholders- both Government and non- government agencies must collectively strive together in making our society more inclusive of women in all development aspects.
This international Women’s day, the Department of Social Welfare, Government of Nagaland in collaboration with Nagaland State Social Welfare Board, Women Studies Centre, Nagaland University and State Resource Centre for Women is organizing the “International Women’s Day 2017” on the same theme of the UN Women, at Nagaland University, Kohima Campus. We acknowledge all the other organizations who are gearing up to celebrate this event to acknowledge the women in our society in different districts. While celebrating the lives of the women who have contributed to the socio-economic development of our society and beyond, it is also a time to reflect on things we can collectively do
. Let us be #BeBoldForChange.
