Be the Change Event~Celebrating WOMEN in India

March 8th marked the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day. This day was marked with great celebration. Many of the ladies from my church here in India(Powerhouse) have started this organazation they call WOW. Women of Worth. Beautiful name and rich with purpose. WOW held an event at our local mall (Exprss Avenue) which celebrated women here in Chennai. We approached and welcomed hudreds of women and invited to come. We had speakers from World Vision and Internation Justice Mission along with other NGO's who set up booths about their organizations. This event was not a womens rights activist sort of event but rather a day set aside to celebrate women, tell them they are of worth, look into the many issues still in India today that harm women, and raise awareness for women and children who go missing in India everyday. There was also a concert featuring many local artists including the WOW band! They all performed fabulously and drew quite a crowd. I was very proud to volunteer at this event and hopefully will have more opportunities to do so in the near future.

I helped promote the WALL OF WORTH. This was a fabulous idea (Thank you Post It for sponsoring this event for us and donating all our post its) It was a giant wall that women could stick Post Its on and it created a hidden mosaic type pattern when filled. We had every women we could find write two things on the Green and Pink post its. The green pieces were "problems" in India regarding women, or things that still needed to change by way of or for women. The pink Post Its represented positive progress or things that have happened over the last 100 years that benefited women of India and across the world. It was a beautiful wall and so neat to see all these women coming together to write things on this wall.



Reading the items on this wall would fill you with the whole spectrum of emotions from incredibly proud and moved, to intensely angry and deeply sad. (Especially under the green colored Post Its.) There are still so many "problems" women face every day in India. I am talking basic women's rights, freedoms, and respect. Mere value being placed on a woman here in India is difficult when women feel the color of their skin determines their attractiveness. This is a toxic notion that is widely believed that the fairer or lighter your skin tone the more attractive you are and therefore of higher worth. Several other issues commonly seen today regarding women are inequality in the workplace, domestic violence, female infanticide (abortions if the baby is found out to be female) and another issue (and often the reason for the infanticide) is Dowry.

Dowry is illegal in India and there are laws supposedly protecting women from this atrocity, however illegal or not, it is still widely practiced in India. The original purpose of a dowry had completely honorable intentions. The dowry was money or gifts from the bride’s parents to her to provide money or property of some sort in preparation for and the establishment of a new household. It was also to ensure protection and basic support for a family should the groom suddenly pass away. This has morphed into a disgusting practice of a “bride price” system. Dowry is now usually gifts of money, property and other wealth which are given to the groom's family for him to see fit to do with what he wishes. Often these days we hear of new cars, money, college education paid for, and allotments of gold offered to the groom for marrying and making a "good match" to their daughter by way of dowry. Families that cannot afford large dowries may be harassed for more money by the groom and his family. Threats of great harm to bride to be or new bride usually follow if the money is not received before the wedding or "enough" money/items are not given which can result in horrible beatings, burns, shameful divorce, and sometimes even death as the new bride winds up killed in “an accident”. (More to come on this later.) Some poorer families take out large loans (wedding loans) they cannot afford, tricked into thinking they should take the money for the future dowries of their daughters, and are then trapped in bonded labor as there is no way they can afford to pay the money back. (I will post more about the dowry issues in a later post.) But this reveals the twisted form dowry has taken and how it is responsible for the degradation of women.

There are many issues still here putting women in a place of disrespect and moving towards proving to these women that they are valued is very difficult. They are rated by the fairness of their skin, and told by their own parents how much they are worth by way of their dowry and this is not even mentioning the abuse, rape, and overall atrocities done to many women in India every day.

10 Things We Can Do to Make the World a Better Place for Women and Girls

1. Educate your sons and daughters equally.
2. Value the girl child.
3. Tell yourself everyday: “I am of value.”
4. Don’t support or endorse the giving or taking of dowry.
5. Don’t endure domestic violence. Report it and get help!
6. Dark is Beautiful– never make negative remarks about a person’s skin tone.
7. Treat the women in your life– your maids, daughters, mothers, mothers-in-law– with respect. 8. Don’t support female infanticide or sex determination tests during pregnancy.
9. Be quick to encourage and build up women; slow to judge and criticize.
10. Look after your health– the world needs you!

A lot of things need to change here in India regarding women and it can start with this list of 10 things practicing and teaching others to value women. Letting them KNOW that they are of worth and importance and that that worth doesn’t come from the color of their skin, or a wealthy family who can afford lavish weddings beyond their means and offering huge dowry of gold and brand new cars, and then producing only male children. That is not putting value on them and teaching all women that they are of worth. There is a long way to go but this event was a small way to hopefully spread this word and get people thinking differently on this issue.
Way to go WOW! Keep it up!

The word needs to get out there and it starts with you being the CHANGE.
So everyone, please join us and , BE THE CHANGE!