International Women’s Day has been celebrated for a century today. What started as a political movement to propagate women’s rights has been reduced to a Hallmark day to celebrate women. Spas and restaurants offer special packages for the so-called fairer sex while the media ropes in influential women to share their views on womanhood.
 
Prof Lakshmi Lingam, dean of research and development at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, says, “While it is important to highlight achievements, it is even more important to bring to light what has not been achieved. These ‘token’ women do not represent the better half of the country’s population who die silent deaths every day.”
 
Flavia Agnes, a women’s rights activist, says, “International Women’s Day is not a festival to be ‘celebrated’, it is a platform to highlight women’s issues and demand change. Only because a Priyanka Chopra walks the ramp or a Hema Malini endorses a special offer at a spa does not mean a rape will not take place in India that day.”
 
Indeed, while 'successful' women might illustrate how the lives of women could be enriched, violence against women continues across India.
 
Take the Dhaula Kuan rape case in Delhi where a 30-year-old call-centre employee was gang-raped by four men last November. The woman from Mizoram was walking back home with a colleague late at night when the incident occurred. Or take the case of the 25-year-old married woman, who was gang-raped by three men who were sharing a taxi with her in Pune last April. The US-based woman, holding an MBA degree, was in the city for a job interview. As soon as she boarded the cab, she was held hostage, taken to an isolated location, and raped.
 
While the above cases got a lot of attention nationally, they are just a minsicule tip of the iceberg. UN statistics indicate that at least 14 women are murdered by their own in-laws in India daily. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, a woman is raped somewhere in India every 25 minutes. And there were 2,659 cases of human trafficking registered in the country in 2008, the latest year for which data are available. According to a research paper by Indian jurists, at least 900 cases of honour killings take place annually in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
 
Even so, writer and sociologist Shilpa Phadke believes it is precisely because of such statistics that International Women's Day is relevant. "It reminds us that we live in an unequal world," she says. "It makes the point that many of us are committed to changing the situation.”
 
After seeing the above statistics, just a day of action and protests by a few to address these gargantuan problems feels inadequate. “As a marginalised and vulnerable section of society, women should come out in the public domain to claim their rights on this day," says Lingam. "This does not imply that they should be passive spectators for the rest of the year.”
 
“Most 'days' are Band-Aids on bleeding wounds," says writer Jerry Pinto. "The idea of having a 'day' is to highlight the plight of the dispossessed and marginalised. Nothing happens after the day passes.”
 
Irrespective of whether its intended purpose is served or not, International Women's Day sure seems to help the economy. Jewellery shops to electronic gadget stores to retail outlets, spas and restaurants make an extra buck by offering special discounts and packages on the occasion.
 
A senior sales manager with a leading textile company admits, on condition of anonymity that the day is milked for what its worth to get the sales graph up. “It serves two functions — it publicises the day and generates curiosity in potential customers.”
 
This year marks the hundredth anniversary of International Women's Day. But the picture is far from pleasant. “Like so many other ideas, this day was probably founded with good intentions," says Pinto. "The world needs a wake-up call. And so we celebrate Animal Rights Day, Access for the Disabled Day, etc. These are all worthy causes. But what is terrifying is that we need a day to make us aware of the rights of 50% of humanity.”