International Women's Day is a day when the entire world recognizes the plight of women, the efforts that have been channeled towards achieving gender equality and the challenges that women face & the immense potential that can be unlocked if we created a society that supports women empowerment and equality.
As we celebrate International Women’s Day it is also very critical for us to acknowledge different realities for different populations of women. One section of this population is of women and girls with disabilities, who face compounded vulnerabilities in society for being of the female gender and also on account of having a disability. These vulnerabilities tend to increase depending on social and economic factors. It is for these reasons that girls and women with disabilities should be included and involved in the commemoration of International Women’s Day and the fight for gender equity and equality. Girls with a disability can be included in the celebrations of International Women’s Day to enable self-advocacy and create awareness of the challenges and barriers they face, and also to recommend solutions to those challenges.
Self-advocacy is critical when it comes to raising awareness on issues as women with disabilities are the experts of their different lived experiences and empowering them to be self-advocates is the right thing to do. Self-advocacy empowers and makes them key players in the fight for inclusion and equity, rather than mere beneficiaries or recipients of project interventions. Women with disabilities have dreams and different aspirations that tend to be dimmed by the different barriers that they face - environmental, attitudinal, systemic, and institutional. It is the desire of every girl with a disability not to have to forego their dreams due to discrimination based on disability and gender. Creating a barrier-free society that accepts and promotes equity in our societies is a key ingredient for ensuring the well-being of girls and women with disability.
This year Bijoyini - a network of women with disabilities, incubated by ShishuSarothi came together to mark Women's Day with a series of programs. On the 1st of March, they took an Awareness Rally in Birubari to visualize their wheelchairs and observe International Wheelchair Day while highlighting their rights as women too. The rally in the Birubarineighborhood area was flagged off by Sri Kamal Kr Sharma, CDPO, Dispur, and Smt Sewali Patgiri from the DSWO Kamrup (M) office, in the presence of Sri Umesh Sharma, President of Birubari Sakha of the Axom Sahitya Sabha, and saw the active participation of local Anganwadi Workers, students from local schools and colleges, women with disabilities.
The Awareness Really was held in the neighborhood community of Birubari and joined by representatives from Anganwadi centers, schools, colleges, and students with disabilities, as well as like-minded NGOs, to create awareness about women’s rights in the community. The guests of honor, Kamal Kumar Sharma, CDPO Dispur, Sewali Patgiri from District Social Welfare Office, Kamrup(M), and Umesh Sharma, President Birubari Sakha Sahitya Sabha inaugurated the rally.