Indian
women balancing divine feminine with modernity
Wednesday December 08, 2010 02:09:16 PM,
Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS
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New Delhi: The emerging
voice of women in India is one of strength, economic
sustainability, positive energy, achievement and erudition - that
strikes a fine balance between modernism and tradition.
According to a cross-section of power women in the capital, what
sets the contemporary Indian woman apart from the rest of her
gender throng across the world "is their ability to combine the
traditional concept of the divine feminine with challenges of a
modern life".
"Basically, the women's struggle in India is for space as opposed
to their struggle for power worldwide. India has its strength in
capacity. For us 'shakti' is not power - but the capacity to do
things," arts and women's rights activist Rekha Mody, the founder
of non-profit group Stree Shakti told IANS here on the sidelines
of the Stree Shakti awards for women's empowerment Tuesday night.
"Indian society is sustained by 'stree shakti' - there is a divine
power in women that empowers them without comprising on family or
individual situations," she added.
If the 1970s was the decade of women's welfare, the 1980s was the
age of development, Mody said.
"The decade of 2000 is one of empowerment. (Congress president)
Sonia Gandhi is taking ahead causes of women in India. The world
is on the brink of change," she added.
Union Tourism and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja
attributed the rapid progress in women's empowerment in India to
the fact that "more and more women were availing of opportunities
in the country".
"Women are coming forward and are willing to take on challenges.
They are ready to take on leadership roles. I think women are
rediscovering themselves. Politics is just one sphere where women
can prove (themselves) - they have to realise their worth in all
spheres," Selja said.
For athlete Krishna Poonia, a gold medal winner at the New Delhi
Commonwealth Games, "the new women achievers of India were coming
from the country's villages".
"If you look at women medallists at the Commonwealth Games, you
will find that majority of women - representing states like
Punjab, Haryana and Karnataka - were from the villages. All the
women in the Indian wrestling team for the Commonwealth Games were
from villages," Poonia said.
She said "education and media were responsible for the
emancipation of women in villages".
"Every home across villages in India boasts of a television which
shows big achievers. It is a motivation - girls are inspired to
take up sports as a career. Women are becoming a force to reckon
with in India," Poonia said.
Acclaimed artist Anjolie Ela Menon links empowerment in India to
"economic and social status of women".
"At the higher end of the spectrum, women have always been
empowered in India because they have access to education and
status - which includes economics. They have been coming out of
self-imposed 'ghunghat' (veil) automatically to become empowered,"
Menon said.
"But at the lower end of the spectrum, women are off than ever
primarily because they have always been struggling against
poverty," she added.
The artist said: "Girls in India were still married off at 12 only
to be raped by their husband."
She said social empowerment at grassroots depended to a great
extent on "equating child and incestuous rapists with convicted
murderers".
Kristin Engvig, founder of the global women's network
International Women's Centre, said "something special was
happening for women all over the world".
"It is as if everyone has started to wake up all over the planet.
There are many needs that can be grabbed and translated into
projects," Engvig told a packed house of women.
She believes that art, culture and communication can be used to
resolve social, economic and political issues - and bring women
from all over the world on a common platform to promote world
peace. And bring feminine global and sustainable vision to work,
communities and life.
Her network has brought together more than 8,000 professionals
from 90 countries since it was established in 1997. Engvig works
with the Indian group, Stree Shakti, to empower Indian women.
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