No progress can come to a nation that does not involve half of its population in its nation-building activities", said a
UN official after visiting the rural areas of South Asia. That''s true. How can we call a nation democratic when half of its population is sitting at home, void of the right to vote? Now it is clear that the progress of
society depends on the empowerment of women. The first step to empower women is to build
awareness in its people. To tell them why there is a need for empowerment. Women must know their rights and their status in society. Unless women are made aware of their own rights, no amount of economic pressure or freedom would help. Then comes the basic need of everyone living in society — education. If women have dreams of competing with their male counterparts, then they have to be educated enough to compete with them. In Bangladesh the government has begun to impart free education up to class eight for girls. Many organisations like Academy for Educational Development are working towards this goal. Without good health there can be no social change. We need a healthy society, which must be ready to take all challenges. So for that we must provide women access to health care. Two most alarming issues in South Asia are overpopulation and HIV/Aids. Women are the key in both the cases. According to a research, in India 10 million people are infected with Aids, amongst them 40 per cent are women, and 4.5 million are unaware of their status. If we educate them about how to deal and prevent these issues we might be able to prevent women from falling prey to these problems. We often find that the key to curbing most problems is by building awareness, but then one would ask how? Through the media. We can use both the print and the electronic media, to build awareness about women empowerment. Recently one has witnessed a rise in women taking part in the economic activity of various South Asian countries. We also find a number of micro-credit associations providing them with loans to start their own business. Currently, there are many NGOs working to build awareness and to empower women in South Asia. We also find the governments taking a keen interest in women''s development. One recent step taken by the Pakistani government to end gender discrimination was to train a batch of 10 lady pilots, who passed out in 2006. This broke the traditional stereotype that only men can defend the frontiers of the nation. So we see that things are changing for the better. Now girls can also fulfil their dreams of flying F-16s. And of course we cannot neglect women''s role in sports these days. India''s Sania Mirza, is one example. We also find women participating in boxing and judo. We men must realise that if we want our country to prosper we have to empower our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters to help them achieve the status they duly deserve, i.e. of being useful citizens.