A famous woman who worked tirelessly for women’s empowerment once said: “When you educate a woman, you educate an entire family.”
However, there is more to the above. In today’s times, when you help a woman become financially independent, you inspire entire families, in fact, an entire generation.
Over the years, we have seen evidence of this all around us. From the bottom of the food chain to the very top, women are excelling in various areas. What would have been unthinkable just 50 years ago is a reality nowadays.
They are blazing a trail everywhere. Today, one is not surprised to find a female security guard at the entrance of offices and institutions or when we see them as part of security detail for VIPs. Nor is one surprised to see the number of women involved in launches of our satellites.
Is there any field of activity where women are not making their presence felt? And many of them take care of families, simultaneously. Managing homes, children’s education and much more. In recent times, we have also seen women flying fighter jets in the Indian Air Force.
Without even a shadow of doubt, women are indeed a very strong pillar of our society. Drive down the countryside and you will find women working in fields. They take care of everything – from sowing to tending towards and reaping the crop. They also take care of the cattle while manging the homes, the children, the parents and other elders.
They are also active in ensuring the delivery of the produce to the markets and much more. In villages across India, women contribute heavily to the food processing industry by either sorting out fruits & vegetable at home to working on small home units to prepare essential raw material for the processing plants.
But they continue to face multiple challenges even today even as our societies have seemingly advanced. Their contributions are often not recognized; question marks are raised when women want to get educated or want to learn a skill so that they can seek employed in a particular vocation and much more.
Women continue to fight for pay parity across several industries and sectors even today. Women have to fight for financial freedom in several sections of the society an a financially independent woman is often frowned upon or meets with questionable looks.
Women have to work with several physical and physiological challenges and men often fail to understand these challenges and this is hurdle that the society must overcome.
Amidst us, however, there are many examples of women who chose to overcome odds and live life on their own terms. Some examples are given below:
Waheda Mulani has worked at Sus Garment for over two years. When she joined, she did not know how to operate any machines, be they for stitching, embroidery or cutting. After training, she learned to operate all machines and is doing most of her work on specialized Kaj & Button machines. She earns more than she did earlier, and is contributing towards household expenses.
Archana Zinzurde has been working with Sus Garment for 3 years. Earlier, she had only worked on simpler stitching machines at home, had no idea about modern ones. At Sus Garment, she has worked on Kaj (buttonhole) machine, elastic attaching and feed of the arm machines. Today, she can work expertly on these machines. Before joining Sus Garment, she could only stitch blouses and dresses; now she can stitch shirts, pants, boxers and tops easily.
These stories prove that women are indeed pillars of the society and given a chance, they can shine in whatever field they are asked to. And, with their example, they have the ability to transform their families and societies.
It is for this reason that corporate houses must invest in CSR activities, especially those directed at women’s empowerment. There are several NGOS today working in the areas of empowering rural women, and in the areas of women’s skill development etc. It is such CSR projects for women that corporates must direct their attention. For the future of their families and societies and for the future of India.
