NEN to observe International Women’s Day

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 6: The International Women’s Day (IWD) will be observed at Madanrting on March 8.

A cultural programme will also be organized by the North East Network on this day to celebrate women from various ethnic and minority groups in the communities and women’s collective spirit and resilience to gender inequalities, a statement issued by NEN said yesterday.

The activities include folk dance, film screening, sharing of experiences and highlighting contributions of women grassroot leaders.

International Women’s Day (IWD) celebrates women of all identities and their remarkable achievements in the social, economic, cultural and political spheres. Beyond that, it is also a call for action to eliminate gender inequality in this world. IWD can be traced back to the year 1908 when 15,000 women garment workers marched through New York City demanding shorter working hours, better pay and voting rights for women.

North East Network (NEN) observed IWD in Shillong for the first time in 1998, involving discussions around women in electoral politics. The same year, IWD was also observed in the state of Assam.

Nagaland observed the day in 2002. This year’s campaign is observed under the theme “Inspire Inclusion”. NEN reiterates its position that women must remain at the centre stage of all decision making processes. It aims to inspire everyone to include women of all identities in the social, economic, cultural and political spheres.

Women’s leadership is paramount to achieving gender justice and equality.

The statement said NEN has experienced stories of women leaders which are inspiring; women leaders who have overcome discrimination to bring change in their communities and have further inspired and included women from their communities of weavers, farmers and survivors to emerge as peer leaders.

It is time to celebrate women’s agency, their substantive contribution from homes to public spaces and their leadership towards transformational change, it added.

Stories of a Shillong boy Part 1: Hill Boy and the Desert

There is a little 10 year old boy in Shillong who has a funny way of looking at things. I call him “Ray” – A named derived from his Khasi first name. I am his mother and this is one of the many stories I have about him.

Now Ray had an intense hate for two subjects in school – science and geography. I’m still drawing nonsensical circles around science, but I think I’ve cracked geography and a geography lesson is one of the most fun things we do together now. I want to talk about a lesson we did a little while ago.

In this lesson, we read about the Thar Desert. The book said something really scary to Ray. It told him that the desert is expanding because we cut down forests and let our cattle eat away all our grasslands. This really worried him. Before we could go on with the lesson, he said, “But I don’t want the desert to reach the Meghalaya.”

I looked at him and said, “It won’t.”

“But the book says that it will.” He insists. “I don’t want to live in a desert.”

I had to think for a bit. See Ray has this way of getting fixated on something and then he dwells on it – a reason why I tutor him myself by redoing every chapter that his teachers have taught in school. His head is full of questions that he would never ask in a classroom kind of space, but he would demand an answer out of me.

“It will not happen tomorrow Ray.” I said, “We’ll all be dead and gone by then. There is no need to stress.”

This did not put him at ease at all. He was worried. “I don’t want to live in India anymore if the desert is growing mei. We have to leave India.”

“There are deserts everywhere.” I said.

“This can happen all over the world?” he asked sounding completely helpless.

“Yes.” I said thinking of Mad Max Fury Road. “But it won’t happen anytime soon. It will probably happen during the time of your great great great great grandchild so you have nothing to worry about.”

This calmed him down for a little while and I was able to finish the lesson. He had his dinner after that, brushed his teeth and got into bed.

As I was tucking him in he said softly, “But I want my great great great great grand son or daughter to live also.”

And it suddenly struck me that even I want my great great great great great grandchild to live.

(This piece has been written by Dalariti Nongpiur with illustrations by Hazel Kharkongor)