Celebrating International Women's Day in PRIA

March 8th is Women's Day and this year's global theme is "The gender agenda: gaining momentum".

Based on a recent survey conducted by Trustlaw, (http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/womens-rights/dangerpoll/), India is the fourth most dangerous country in the world for women. There are 591.5 million women in India and this year at PRIA, we took a moment to think about the reality of the fact that every one of these women would have faced some form of harassment in their lifetime.

PRIA organised a reflective half day session to commemorate International Women’s day to celebrate and honour the women in each ones life.

The journey was initiated with a short presentation on the history of International Women’s Day and why it is celebrated globally.

To recognise and appreciate the important role that women play in the lives of all those who were present; each staff member drew a thank you card for the one woman in their life telling them how special they are and why.

Asmita Theatre Group, one of the leading Hindi theatre groups in the country was brought to Tughlakabad Institutional Area by PRIA to perform their very popular play “Dastak", which is a street play that attempts to create awareness on increasing incidences of atrocities against women in our country. The play highlighted the heinous violence and harassment against women at working and public places and asked every individual person present to have a zero tolerance to it.

Increasingly, the boundaries between the private and the public space are diminishing, there are more women on the streets and the workplaces today than they were a decade ago. In the aftermath of the heinous rape of the young woman in December last year, an uprising that shook the nation and beyond, women and girls took to the streets to “take back the night”. But, the reality is that women are still finding it increasingly difficult to negotiate a safe space for themselves within and outside their homes. This will continue unless we recognise that the roots of violence and persistent discrimination against women lie deeply entrenched in the unequal power relations between men and women. Echoing what thousands have said before, PRIA too believes that a change is needed, but the change will come only when individuals understand this and take responsibility for the change. On this occasion, PRIA launched its “Leave a footprint” campaign. The campaign asks individuals to think about the footprint they would like to leave behind and make a pledge on how they will each make one change in their own lives that will be a footstep forward in the direction of a world free from Gender Discrimination and Violence. The campaign was launched by PRIA staff today at PRIA offices in Delhi, Bihar, Haryana Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.