She is a woman, she is a mother
She is a wife, a sweet daughter
She is strong, ambitious and patient
An earnest listener, wise and confident
Her kindness has melted the world
Her embrace has brought it to life
Above all, she is a beautiful flower
And she has her secret superpower!

Having met some mysteriously incredible doctors of a well-known ‘Blossom Clinic’, I decided to observe them closely. But there was something peculiar about them that instantly drew my attention.

The queen of love and beauty, Dr Rosie was full of love and passion and could express genuine affection and appreciation towards all around her.

Dr Sunflower Tower Bell was optimistic, strong, and resilient. She smiled in the light keeping calm and stood tall when confronted with challenging visitors.

Ms Poppy, the receptionist, empathized with the gloomy families. I overheard the nurse, Mrs Carnation, sincerely encouraging the young ones to express affection and appreciation for their loved ones. And Mrs Statice, full of sympathy and compassion, fostered a sense of understanding and connection among them.

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In a country where multiple laws are required for the protection of women, one thing is quite certain; while the general governance of the country may have a view towards the progress of the women of its country, society is still not mature enough to accept them as equals of men.

The very concept of EQUALITY is often misunderstood by the most knowledgeable. The jurist Salmond gave the most succinct and precise definition of equality, it being the “similar treatment of similar people”. So while we may not expect women to run a 100-metre race along with the men at the Olympics, they cannot be written off in so many other fields. After all, even at the international events, men and women compete in the same category when the sporting event is an equestrian event where while the physical work is that of the horse, the final result to a large extent depends on the versatility of the rider.

Conservative thoughts with some of the decision-makers can often be an impediment to the progress of women. The Armed Forces, for many years, kept women out of their fighting forces, and when they finally did open entries, they were with several reservations until the Courts intervened to give the women greater parity with the men. Today, our women are not only flying fighter planes but even joining the menfolk in joint air exercises outside the country with foreign nations.

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I am the third child among five siblings. My parents told me that my birth brought them good luck. I have always been happy to be a girl. Boys in those days could not wear colourful clothes, hats, ribbons, jewellery, high-heeled shoes, handbags or boast different hairdos! At puberty, when I matured into a woman, like Anne Frank, I too was excited. Life flowing in me and the potential of bringing into the world a human life! What a great gift women are blessed with!

As a teenager, I was delighted to be vivacious, innovative, enterprising, hardworking and adorable. I was a bundle of energy, who entered into a web of relationships each day. I was also aware that not all of these relationships were cordial and growth producing. I did have my share of difficulties and struggles like every other young daring daughter.

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“Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination… world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive… a world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women’s equality. Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias.” (International Women’s Day website)

Every human, no matter their gender, has the advantage of all human rights, respect, power, and opportunities to form choices about their lives. Many misunderstand gender equality as females and males being equivalent. Gender equality means standing on an equal platform to do anything they want with total respect, comfortably with all biological differences.

Women professionals are standing shoulder to shoulder with men in earning their own bread and butter. They have penetrated many sectors and excel in fields that were once the entire empire of men. Despite progress, company traditions and biased systems towards men, result in women being kept back. Inanimate gender bias remains a significant impediment to a woman’s career advancement.

Sadly, girls are left behind by general norms framed with boys in mind and not girls. So advantage boys and disadvantage girls by policies, programmes, government systems at the grassroots level. It intensifies the adverse effects of all other sorts of discrimination, exclusion and worse for women.

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When Lata Mangeshkar was born, she was hardly known to anyone except to her closest ones. But as time passed, when she, with her mesmerizing voice, rose to dizzy heights on the music firmament, she became the heartthrob of millions of people all across the country and the world. On 6 February, as this Nightingale flew from this world into eternity, she was accorded a State funeral with full state honours by the Government of India, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.

Lata’s life story clearly confirms that there is no limit to the heights a woman can reach. Today, women are emerging confident, decisively taking in their hands the reins of leadership as Presidents, Prime Ministers, CEOs, Olympic medalists, Nobel Prize winners, great artistes and scientists and so on. Women are proving to their male counterparts that they are strong and creative, and can chart their own path and drive the course of history.

On 8 March, as the world celebrates International Women’s Day 2022, we acknowledge their extraordinary contribution to society for fighting valiantly against all hostile circumstances, their strength to lead, accomplish, empower and inspire in making this planet a happier, harmonious and friendly place. On this day, when we value, appreciate and celebrate both the equality and difference in genders, we resolve to decisively eliminate all gender discrimination and biases against women.

However, as the world unequivocally recognizes the significance of women’s roles in society, in India one million female children are killed in the womb every year. In schools and colleges generally girls are perceived to be doing better than boys. Yet 63% of girl students drop out at the primary level itself. Families are known to keep aside a lot of money for their marriage instead of investing it in their education. Sadly, many of our educated and employed young girls leave their jobs when getting married. They are educated just to get a good husband. How can we progress like the U.S. or China when half of our country’s population is deprived of its right to contribute to its advancement?

India has the largest untapped reservoir of talents in women to transform society. The brightness of a nation’s future depends highly on the education and empowerment opportunities available to women. It is said, ‘Educate a man, you educate an individual. But educate a woman, and you educate a generation’. It is time now to implement such a policy, especially considering that educating a girl-child is tantamount to furthering the country’s progress.

Today, every young girl is challenged to discover her inner strength, hone her ability to change society and step out of her comfort zone to chalk her own path to success in every sphere of life. It is with this motivation that this issue of The Teenager Today presents stories of young women to inspire the young in general and girls in particular to discover their strengths and stand up against all odds with optimism, courage and confidence!

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The tradition of setting aside a day, every year, keeping in mind the above, began in the United States on 28 February 1909. The World Conference referred to as Socialist International, held next year in Austria gave the day international status.

As a follow-up to this, the first-ever International Women’s Day was celebrated in 1911, in countries like Austria, Denmark, and Switzerland where over a million people — both men and women — participated in different rallies demanding equal rights to women: right to vote, right to work including to hold public offices, all of which were surprisingly denied to women till then. This was followed up by women’s movements in Russia and elsewhere. Finally, the United Nations General Assembly set its seal on the celebration officially declaring March 8 as the U.N. sponsored International Women’s Day.

However, in spite of the worldwide and national-level celebration of International Women’s Day in our country and elsewhere, women continue to be discriminated against, exploited and ill-treated. The number of crimes against women and girls have almost doubled in India over the past decade, the gang rape committed on “Nirbhaya”, being a typical case in perspective. Practically every week, we hear of girls being thrown acid at for refusing to marry the attacker or resisting the sexual advances of the man concerned or similar such incidents.

This must go, and instead let’s learn to respect women everywhere, and treat them with dignity beginning with our own homes, schools/colleges, particularly on streets, showing utmost courtesy they deserve. Let’s also oppose any move whatsoever to portray women in bad light, particularly in films, commercials, street hoardings, fashion shows, etc. We also need to find ways and means to create public opinion against social evils prevalent in our country like infanticide, child marriages, forced dowry, etc, that degrade the god-given dignity of women.

Otherwise, annual celebrations like International Women’s Day, Day of the Girl Child will come and go with no impact on the society. Let’s make International Women’s Day, this year, a day with a big difference!

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A couple of months ago, Manushi Chillar was the toast of the nation, indeed the world, as she confidently won the Miss World title in China. However, what many do not know is that the person behind the confidence and poise and, indeed, Manushi’s life-view, was a diminutive young lady by the name of Nidhika Bahl.

Nidhika hails from a middle-class family of entrepreneurs and was born and brought up in Delhi. After securing a B.Com. (Hons) degree from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Nidhika went on to do an M.Sc. in Finance from Lancaster University (UK). Over the next 7 years, Nidhika held positions in companies across the U.S., U.K. and India.

Finance and numbers came easily to Nidhika; however, that did not mean that a lifetime spent in doing just that held great attraction for her. She decided to take a sabbatical and joined a popular theatre group called ‘Ank’, spending the next two years doing theatre. It was at the end of this period that she was picked up by Marching Ants Advertising Pvt Ltd. as a freelance Creative Director.

In 2005, Nidhika moved to Mumbai with her husband. Her family had always encouraged her to start out on her own and in 2006, Nidhika set up Parallel Circles Entertainment, a media firm. As the founder and creative director of PCE, she had the privilege of working with some of the best names in the corporate world such as P&G, Gillette, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Akzo Nobel, CRY Shiksha, ZOYA by Tata and many more.

However, not all was well on her personal front. Nidhika’s marriage was failing and this had a tremendous impact on her health and self-esteem. In 2008, she was diagnosed with major clinical depression which even caused her to make two unsuccessful attempts to take her life. Thus began a long journey with several doctors and specialists — she had to undergo sedation three times a day and therapy three times a week! This lasted for six long years. In the midst of this, Nidhika and her husband decided to separate.

Nidhika feels that what aggravated her condition was her playing ‘the victim’, blaming the world for what was happening to her and looking for solutions outside and trying to change others instead of looking into herself. One day, after almost 4 years of treatment and medication had caused other innumerable related health issues she was introduced by a friend to a multi-level health products company. These products helped her a great deal and she was invited to share her success stories with the group.

This early success made Nidhika determined to bounce back from this situation in her life. It took her six long years of relentless determination and undying faith in herself to deal with all that life threw at her during that period. She started meeting inspirational people and got addicted to reading, especially self-help books. She read nearly 300 books, and this addiction to reading slowly reduced her dependence on medication. One day, she came upon a book that changed her life forever — Joyce Meyer’s The Battlefield of the Mind.

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