The Hindu : Come out of the cocoon, women urged

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 14, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Come out of the cocoon, women urged

By Our Special Correspondent

VILLUPURAM, MARCH 13. Women must take a vow not to end their lives, whatever the provocation, Sudha Sundararaman, president, All-India Democratic Women's Association, said today.

A study by the organisation ``Vimochana'' revealed that on an average daily three women in Bangalore either committed suicide or were killed for dowry or for other reasons, she said.

Ms. Sundararaman told a seminar on ``Women 2020'' wife-beating had been categorised as domestic violence, but still society thought it was a private family affair, and therefore, did not call for outside intervention. This was happening because men and women were prisoners of the age-old thinking — women ought to take care of the family and men should move out to earn.

The AIDWA president said it was expected of the career woman to assume a ``superwoman'' role, as she had to do justice to both household chores and her job.

She said family should not be considered a watertight compartment, isolated from society. For instance, girl students in Chennai protested against fee hike in colleges and Mumbai women staged a demonstration against an increase in wheat price. She called upon women to support issues affecting society.

Because of globalisation, job opportunities in the organised sector were shrinking, more so for women, as many were being shown the door through the voluntary retirement scheme. The unorganised sector offered monotonous jobs at lower wages.

Coming down on the conduct of beauty contests, the AIDWA president said it was a matter of concern that women were being treated as a ``commodity''. The organisers specified the physical features to qualify for the context, but real beauty did not lie in such statistics.

Only the ``inner beauty'' or thinking for the good of the family and society ought to be considered real beauty.

Pointing out that emerging out of the cocoon, the butterfly would not go back to its earlier position. She said if educated women also worked on the same analogy they could ``fly to the skies and make 2020 theirs.''

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