The International Women’s Day is observed on March 8th every year. The event is believed to have begun in 1908 when about 15,000 US women organised a march in the New York City. The agenda behind this march was the demand for equal voting rights, shorter working hours and better way(Women were/are not paid as much as their male counterparts). However, the first International Women’s day was celebrated on 19th Match in 1911 and first women’s day was observed in Germany in 1914. In 1977, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution and since then March 8th is celebrated as the International Women’s Day.
Now, that we have gotten around the history, let us have the understanding of the necessity to celebrate a particular day for half the population of the world. Considering we live in the part of a world, where movies can be banned due to being ‘lady oriented’ should be enough to answer the question. But every once in a while, somebody comes along, breaking the barriers of patriarchy, rising high enough for the world to look up and kneel before them. Such women need to be celebrated.
Following are the examples of 5 such Indian women who have inspired generations and continue to do so:
Kalpana Chawla
Kalpana Chawla easily makes to the top of the list. Born in Karnal, Punjab on March 17, 1962, Chawla’s first mission began on November 19, 1997, as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. Chawla was the first Indian-born woman and the second Indian person to fly in space. In the year 2000, Chawla was named for her second flight as a part of the crew STS-107. On January 16, 2003, Chawla finally returned to space aboard Space Shuttle Columbia. The shuttle, unfortunately, disintegrated on his way back home in Texas, killing the entire crew. Unfortunate though it was, Kalpana Chawla became a stuff of legends, of tales and folklores. She became a beacon of hope and inspiration for those who chose to believe.
Indra Nooyi
Yes, interesting choice for the second spot. But in a world dominated by business’men’, Nooyi has emerged a corporate world leader as the Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo, the second-largest food and beverage business in the world by net revenue. In 2014, she was ranked 13 on the list of Forbes World’s 100 most powerful women and 82nd most powerful woman on the Fortune list in 2016.
M C Mary Kom
Not Priyanka Chopra from some village in the North East. If you didn’t know that, you should just stop reading this. Born on November 4, 1982, Mary Kom is an Olympics boxer hailing from the Kom-Kuki tribe in Manipur. She is a five-time World Amateur Boxing champion, and the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six world championships. Mary Kom, struggled through the rise in ranks. And hailing from the most ignored part of the country didn’t help. Kom did not let marriage and troubles that follow motherhood come in the path of her success and is reportedly training for thew 2020 Olympics.
Arundhati Roy
Born on November 24, 1961, Arundhati Roy is an Indian author best known for the novel “The God of Small Things”, which won her the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997. The novel became the biggest-selling book by a nonexpatriate Indian author. Roy is also a known political activist and has been involved in numerous humanitarian causes. She, in fact, has had a sedition case filed against her. Now, I am not saying that is the wisest thing to follow here but the woman has been standing up for her beliefs and her rights against much stronger forces.
Sushmita Sen
Born into a Bengali family in Hyderabad, Sushmita Sen, rose to stardom with the title of the Miss Universe in 1994. Although her venture into Bollywood wasn’t as successful as the runner-up (Aishwarya Rai), Sen is still considered to be one fine actor. The actress has been working on the independent scene for over a decade now. In an industry and a country where taboos become the oxygen we breathe, Sen has adopted and successfully raised two girls with her relationship status being single. So, everyone out there who thinks motherhood is what a woman should want, here is a woman, successful in the own right, raising two girls without the requirement of a father.