Women’s Day Gathering Was Organized By AWARE With The Support Of TDH. The Event Was Held At Charhyar, District Tharparkar.
March 8th , is globally celebrated as an International Women’s day. Women are the back bone in every society. This is particularly true for the women in Thar Region. Other than a woman’s role in her family, women successfully juggle the role of a home-maker, a cattle herder and a wage laborer. In all her roles she is resilient and strong. Yet women face numerous challenges throughout their life.
Women’s Day Gathering Was Organized By AWARE With The Support Of TDH. The Event Was Held At Charhyar, District Tharparkar. The event was organized around the global theme of “choose to challenge” since “a challenged world is an alert one and from challenge comes change”. AWARE representatives, local social activists and the community members took active part in it.
The AWARE Team Representative Ms. Nusrat said; “we must acknowledge the important role of women in our socio-economic life. Thus it is imperative to build a congenial social environment for women. Women can indeed transform our world if we give women a chance to use their true potential” A local community activist Mst. Kamli lauded the efforts made by AWARE.
He said: “This is a blessing that now with the kind support of AWARE; our women are marketing their skills in making traditional crafts. Women in village Charhyar are engaged in pickle making and kitchen gardening which is so useful for the family nutrition and an additional source of family income too. Women are poultry farming at household level too. It heartening AWARE is engaging women in every field.”
The event also highlighted the negative impact of COVID -19 on women as the in-equalities they suffer are further exacerbated. COVID-19 lockdown had put a tremendous pressure on the family incomes, making it very difficult for women to manage family resources. This increased the incidents of domestic violence, mental illness and even suicides.
Mst. Ghamni a woman focal person from the community addressed the current situation of the women. She said: “We must rise up to the challenge, women face today due to covid-19. Women work inside their homes and outside too, to contribute to the family income. Yet with so much stress, a woman is subjected to domestic violence and in-human treatment from her in-laws. COVID-19 has made women regressed, they feel suffocated and thus slip into mental disorders.”
The event included motivational songs and rendering narrations of famous poets by different women social activists. A local woman social activist Ms. Samjhoo Bai added: “Looking into the great contributions of women, we must not let women suffer in silence. Women; especially in the present situation of COVID-19 needs to be heard. The men and the elders must do their duty in safe guarding and protecting the rights of the women.”
Ms. Kiran Hayat an AWARE woman representative expressed her views: “In our community, AWARE has given women a chance to be heard. Women are active now, in making their own situation better. WE have women chosen as focal person for water distribution, we have women chosen as community focal person, we have women chosen as community mobilizers, and then we have women as community moderators pertaining women specific issues. This is our achievement! We must celebrate it!”
The event ended at a positive note. The AWARE representative Mr. Mukesh Kumar in his concluding remarks said: “We have come this far, now we will move ahead to make this world a better place to live by giving women their voice, their choice and the significance they truly deserve. Let us all resolve to start making this change from our own homes.” All the participants, holding play cards made a rally that took a round of the village to forward this message to the entire community.