women-s-day-an-exercise-in-consumer-ritualism

In the supermarket of human vanity, every shade of emotion is a neatly classified commodity that has a designated display slot. And every occasion is a celebration of the market in all its glory. Over years, International Women’s Day has become all about Archies cards, discount sales, rhetorical slogans or motivational quotes. Like all other calendar events, it has been reduced to an exercise in consumer ritualism.

 

Ideally, it should be an occasion for an honest reflection on the status of women in the society and the challenges that impede their growth and empowerment. In the Indian context, women empowerment—economic, social, political and cultural—is still a work in progress.

 

Challenges galore

 

Despite breaking the glass ceilings across the fields—from politics to academia and corporate boardrooms—women continue to battle a deeply entrenched patriarchal mindset that imposes restrictions on their aspirations. The challenges range from gender-based violence, economic disparities, unsafe environment and limited access to education and healthcare. There is a need to close the gender gap across all these spheres.

 

Post-independence, the Constitution granted women equal rights, but societal challenges like gender discrimination, domestic violence and traditional biases still persist. Empowering women is not just a moral imperative but a crucial step towards realising India's full potential as a global leader.

 

Catchy slogans like ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ may have helped in promoting public awareness about the girl child education but the ground realities pertaining to women’s education, safety, security and equal opportunities at workplaces are far from encouraging. The atrocities against women are on the rise while the conviction rate continues to be poor.

 

This year is the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a historic agenda endorsed in 1995 by 189 governments to promote women's rights worldwide.

 

Thirty years on, despite remarkable gains, issues like gender-based violence, economic disparities, and lack of political representation remain. The theme for 2025 emphasises empowering young women and girls as change agents and responding to new challenges such as climate justice and digital inclusion. International Women's Day is a call to action, a call to break down the barriers that still exist, to challenge stereotypes, and to ensure that every woman has the opportunity to thrive.

 

A latest United Nations report says that gender discrimination remains deeply embedded in economies and societies. A woman or girl is killed every 10 minutes by a partner or family member and cases of conflict-related sexual violence have increased by 50% since 2022. The report, released ahead of International Women's Day on March 8, also noted that only 87 countries have ever been led by a woman.

 

Mainstreaming misogyny

 

Instead of mainstreaming equal rights, what we are seeing is the mainstreaming of misogyny. Academia is often perceived as a largely progressive space, but even there, gender biases still persist. The dominance of male authority figures, the subtle dismissal of women’s opinions in decision-making bodies, and the struggle to break into higher administrative roles are just some of the challenges faced by women educators.

 

At 21%, India has one of the lowest female participation rates in the workforce across the world. It is less than half the global average.  No matter which cluster of countries one compares with — high income or low, highly indebted or least developed — India comes off worse.

 

Regrettably, India continues to be ranked among the ‘most dangerous countries for women'. What is more alarming is that several cases of sexual assault go unreported for various reasons, including kinship with the perpetrator and lack of trust in tedious judicial system. The dismally low labour force participation rate can be attributed, at least partially, to the restrictive cultural norms regarding women’s work, the gender wage gap and lack of safety policies and flexible work offerings. The sharpest decline has been in the case of Scheduled Tribe women.

 

Pandemic worsened women’s woes

 

The Coronavirus pandemic has worsened the situation, impacting the women disproportionately because a majority of them work in informal sectors, characterised by lower-paying and less secure jobs, income volatility, and the lack of a robust social safety net. The labour force participation rate, which includes those who are employed as well as those who are as yet unemployed but seeking work, is one of the important indicators that reflects the economy’s active workforce. According to the World Bank, Indian women’s participation in the formal economy is among the lowest in the world—only parts of the Arab world fare worse.

 

Increasing the representation of women in the legislatures is an important means to ensure empowerment. It would have an enormous impact on what issues are raised and how policies are shaped. Besides, it would create room to reform and revise discriminatory laws against females. Political parties should not only reserve 33% of their party tickets for women in parliamentary and state elections but also reserve at least 33% of their organisational positions for them.