Over the past one year, women achievers continued to excel in their own fields and were successful in breaking the glass ceiling or whatever is left of it! DCP Shweta Chauhan became Central Delhi’s first woman DCP at age 45, Seema Devi was the first woman e-rickshaw driver in J&K, Puja Prajapati became the first woman driver in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, and Kunjan Jhanwar turned the first woman Yoga Therapist in Madhya Pradesh. These are just a few from the endless list of women achievers whose names we have not even heard of.

There are also those path-breakers who had earlier made themselves world-famous with their own might! We have Mary Komm, who made the country proud by becoming the first woman from India to win a medal in boxing at the Olympics! She won the World Amateur Boxing champion for a record six times. Then, there is Arunima Sinha, the Mount Everest Girl! In 2013, she became the first woman amputee in the world to climb the Everest! We have Mithali Raj, the Lady Tendulkar of Indian Women’s cricket. During India’s series against New Zealand, Mithali became India’s first woman to play in 200 ODI matches. And the list goes on…

Today, there are many women who struggle every day even to survive in their own homes. Razia Muradi is an Afghan national who won the gold medal in MA (Public Administration) at Veer Narmad South Gujarat University (VNSGU) convocation recently. She says that she represents women from her country who are deprived of education under the current Taliban rule. It is truly sad to see that women have to go through physical, as well as psychological, trauma and face a horrific life even in the present times. We should stop for a moment to ponder over why they should live through this heart-breaking scenario, at all.
Women have been facing torture for ages. But, in India, it was not so in the beginning. In fact, women were treated as equals and were always respected. Western influence has changed things somewhere along the way. And today, when we see women excel in life, we know there are men helping them reach their goals! Yes, we can help women! Women have so much to give to this world. It is a woman who not only gives birth to her son, but helps him grow and, in old age, it is a woman wife or daughter, sister, daughter-in-law who looks after men, gives them love and care in life.

I believe if each of us does just that little bit to make the women in our lives happy, the fairer sex across the world can be happy and the world will be a happier place. The world will make greater progress if women join us wholeheartedly and give of their best. I have my mother and my wife. They have contributed to my life and work tremendously. I would not have been able to achieve what I have had it not been for them. I want to take this occasion to thank them once more for being there always when I needed them the most and for supporting my ideas and giving me strength.

As the ‘Mozart of Madras’, AR Rahman, famously said after his double Oscar feat for Slumdog Millionaire in 2009 that he was dedicating his Oscars to his loving mother Kareema Begum, who was seated among the audience at the Kodak theatre and his wife, Saira Banu, since he had promised both of them separately before leaving home that he would bring home an Oscar for each of them that day!

In conclusion, we can say that it becomes the responsibility of a man to make a woman happy and contented and find her place in the sun!