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Meghalaya gears up for Int’l Women’s Day

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SHILLONG, March 7: Meghalaya is all geared up like every year to celebrate International Women’s Day on Monday across various districts with focus on women empowerment and leadership.
Albeit the hill state is known to treat women with dignity and respect, they continue to battle varied challenges including poor care services and trials of being single mothers.
Governor Satya Pal Malik has also conveyed his wishes to the women of the state and the country on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2021. “As announced by the UN, this year’s theme is #ChooseToChallenge with the idea that a challenged world is an alert world; thus individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions,” the Governor said.
The occasion serves an important purpose and forces conversations about women’s achievements and global gender inequality into the mainstream besides inviting people of all backgrounds, ages and genders to consider what they can do to make the world a more equal place for everyone, he said.
“I urge the people in the state to join hands in protecting and respecting women,” he added.
Sharing her views on the upcoming International Women’s Day, female legislator and chairperson of the Assembly Committee on Women Empowerment, Ampareen Lyngdoh, said, urged all women to take a pledge to reach out to another woman in need.
“If together we shield each other from oppression and pain, no one can harm us. Our weakness is our own kind, it could be a mother-in-law, a mistress or just another competitive woman waiting to suppress or undermine,” Lyngdoh.
On challenges of being a single mother, Lyngdoh said that it is not a desired position to be in but society at large degrades this common predicament and often such women are put under tremendous pressure from all ends.
“But what pains her most is children of unwedded mothers who face an unfair world and equal victims of such circumstances,” she added, while also admitting that poverty is an evil in all circumstances.
Lyngdoh asserted that it is time policy-makers and governments must not just commemorate women day but design policies that will reach out to women, addressing evils that give underprivileged and deprived women a fair chance to a better life.
She also thanked the Meghalaya government for putting focus on women health in the newly announced Health Policy stating that with the policy the authorities would be able to reach the targeted group.
Meanwhile, a single mother, who lives in the city with two young children and her mother, told The Shilllong Times on the condition of anonymity, that life for her became tough after the death of her husband.
She, however, ekes out a living by taking up some network marketing job, which is again on a part-time basis.
Several programmes are set to be organised in Shillong and other parts of the state to celebrate the occasion including Women’s Cell of Lady Keane College on March 8.
This year’s theme — Leadership — has inspired the college to felicitate its past pupils who have made a mark in the society through their contribution and leadership qualities.
East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner Isawanda Laloo will be the chief guest of the occasion.
Meanwhile, president of Civil Society Women’s Organisation (CSWO) Agnes Kharshiing pointed out that if and when women, in today’s era, raise issues pertaining to the society, they are killed, attacked and rebuked. Nonetheless, she hoped that more will be done for empowerment to women.

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