International Women’s Day is celebrated across nations to empower women and commemorate their struggles for attaining their current stature and recognition.
According to UN, Women’s Day was established to honour the movement for women’s rights and to build support for achieving universal suffrage for women. All throughout history, women have had to struggle for their basic and fundamental rights- the right to education, political representation, right over their bodies, birth control, all kinds of shaming and bullying, freedom to work and equal pay. Women in states like the USA, Europe, and Australia have achieved most of these rights but millions of women still struggle to get access to these basic rights.
Women have always been less represented in all fields but that did not deter them from achieving some of the most innovative and helpful breakthroughs in various spheres. A female scientist, Dorothy Hodgkin worked out the structure of insulin, penicillin and vitamin B12. Virologist Françoise Barré-Sinoussi identified HIV as the cause of AIDS. Biologist Gail Martin identified and demonstrated the potential of stem cells. All these women won Nobel Prizes for their discoveries. All these women have proved that this world would not become a better place by chaining women in the four walls of the house and leaving them only to raise kids.
Talking about our own University, it consists of numerous girls colleges. These girls’ colleges are a source of inspiration for the first years who take shelter in these institutions for the next three to four years. Each day is an adventure and a lesson. The young women in these colleges deal with all these struggles on a daily basis while girls of co-ed colleges fight for their spaces and representation in each event. The opportunities and freedom allow young women to develop their personalities and become strong individuals ready to take on the world.
Pinjra Tod has become this empowering feminist movement in our University that fights for equality for girl students. Since their inception, they have picked up the gauntlets, raised their voices and accomplished marvellous feats in making our institution more inclusive, equal and empowering.
The young women who have walked through the doors of our institution raised their voices against any sort of discrimination, harassment and/or abuse and strived to make it safer. Each year more girls take admission in our University, they look up to the legacy we leave behind and would do the same when they leave these walls of empowerment when we all make them feel safe, free, inclusive, and special.
Feature Image Credits: GenUN
Prachi Mehra
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