By Our Special Correspondent
SHILLONG: A short play by put up by the Air Force Wives Welfare Association (AFWWA) (L) to celebrate International Women’s Day at the Eastern Air Command Headquarters on Saturday, would indicate that most women waste quality time in watching television serials. This satire is very close to the truth.
The play depicted a housewife who was once a classical dancer and a good seamstress who gave up everything after marriage as she became fully involved with home-making, which, in short means catering to the needs of all family members.
In the morning before her husband and son leave for school the house looks like a war zone. The lady however has a schedule and completes her work by 1 pm after which she is glued to the television to watch the serials she missed in the evening on account of her son’s exams.
A friend drops by and invites the lady for the weekly AFFWA meeting and tells her of the wonderful things that happen there. At first the lady refuses to budge but later agrees to accompany the younger wife. Both come back animated.
The TV buff also learns that she could go back to her productive work of designing dresses and stitching them on a commercial scale. She asks her husband to get her a sewing machine but he rebuffs her proposal on the plea that she would ignore their son’s studies etc.
The play was meant to enthuse the hundreds of wives of Air Force personnel to share the trades they have learnt before marriage and use that experience and expertise to boost their own incomes and savings and also to train others.
According to the President AFWWA (L) Dr Mrs Shobha Varthaman being educated is one thing but being aware about women’s rights and the need for women’s empowerment is quitre another thing and the AFWWA is a platform for that.
Dr Varthaman urged the wives to enrol in the skill training programmes with a commitment to remain there from 10.30 am to 1.00 pm, five days a week throughout the tenure of the training. “The AFWWA will try and sell the products generated by the wives through a private-public-partnership arrangement so that they can also generate their own incomes,” Dr Varthaman said.
Chief Guest of the function Ms Patricia Mukhim, Editor, The Shillong Times exhorted the women to claim their rights and be pro-actively involved in challenging the gender stereotypes. “Gender is a social construct hence it can and must change through the active engagement of women. An empowered woman never feels guilty about what she does to empower herself and other women,” Mukhim said.
Stating that the best chefs and tailors are male and that today there is a growing tribes of male nurses, Mukhim said this proves that the gender myth and stereotype that only women can cook, stitch and be care givers must be broken.
Addressing the audience AOC-in-C Air Marshal S Varthaman said many women who have been groomed in the families of the Air Force have excelled in different parts of the world.
“A woman officer has never let me down,” Varthaman said adding that women need to celebrate each and everyday of their lives. He ended with a quotation which said, “ When a man treat his wife like a princess, his own mother must have been treated like a queen.”
Others who spoke on the occasion included the Senior Administrative Staff Officer (SASO), KS Gill and Ms Kusum Mishra.