Posted: 09/03/2007
International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900s. It is a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women. The event is celebrated in different ways across the world, and often treated as a day for men to show their appreciation towards the women in their lives. However, the political and human rights theme put forward by the United Nations remains strong in many places, including India.
The empowerment of women is a major component of Asha's strategy. All Asha slums celebrated International Women's Day in some form or another, usually with the Mahila Mandals getting together to talk, laugh and reminisce about how their lives have changed since they were made aware of their rights.
Today at Dr Ambedkar Basti, the slum where Asha's work began in 1988, the Asha clinic was taken over by the women's group, along with curious children and men who were happy to acknowledge all that the women have achieved.
Meena, one of the very first Community Health Volunteers, recalled how their situation seemed so hopeless at first, and how Dr Kiran Martin had a great deal of work to do in getting the women motivated to even try and begin to make changes.
Other women talked about how little confidence and self-esteem they had before getting involved with Asha. They described being afraid to leave their slum huts without covering their faces, and how they had no idea of how they could stop their families from suffering from common, preventable diseases.
Several of the community's men joined the gathering, and it was wonderful to see their obvious admiration of all that the women had accomplished. Once one of the male visitors had spoken about how he was impressed with the women, concluding with "Jai Mahila Mandal!" ("Long live the Women's Group!"), the event continued with music, songs and dancing from the women.
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I was suffering from Tuberculosis and my son couldn't cope with looking after me so he moved out. The TB got worse and I relapsed. An Asha community health volunteer noticed my illness, made sure I took my medicine and gave me rations of nutritious food. If Asha was not here I would have died by now.
Arshafilal, Mayapuri
