It is that time of the year again! Oh, yes, it is March 8. The distant drums of the dignity of women sound thus yet again in every nook and corner. This year the theme is the digital awareness, the DigitAll.
Indeed important is digital awakening. As ever, with every new technology, newer modes of women's oppression become more and more vicious. With the digital age, 'control' as a concept is getting more and more oppressive precisely because it is everywhere, by everyone, and in every aspect of life. Tracing the digital crime(s) is no easy task either. Hence it is the need of the hour.
In a way, cyber bullying is more vicious as far as women are concerned, and yet it is not specific to women alone. May be, that is what seems to be currently the problem with the women's day, nay, even with the women's movements. Generalised issues that gobble up the women specific edges seem to be the focus. In a way, this mode of 'celebration' seems to underscore the general feel that women's day is passe as most of the goals of the movement are attained!
Nothing could be farther from the truth, from the reality, however. Women's issues, given the post-Covid era and rampant ageism as huge swaths of the world are greying, are getting more complex by the day. Newer apps are threatening with workspace encroachment, moreover.
In brief, March 8 should not be a 'women as consumers' special day. Newer, more focussed debates need to emerge. The old sound bytes must give way to newer 'de-signs' as paradigms are shifting hugely which would affect women's lives in multiple ways. Only when such pioneering principles emerge, March 8 would be the 'vasantostav', a new beginning, as today gets signified in many parts of India!
Pratima@"We cannot solve our problems with the way of thinking with which we created them," says Albert Einstein.
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