Women's Day, women empowerment et al

Sanjay Thakur, media professional
I do think that women empowerment has come out of the text books, periodicals and it is really happening now. Take a glance at the confident women waiting for the buses on city roads unmindful of what they are wearing and how they will be looked at.

They know they look good: both externally and internally. The credit goes to all the educated lot of India who have stopped seeing them as household items. In fact, these confident women look, most of the time, prettier than most handsome men, whose looks do not translate into some real actions that have made Indian women what they are.

Paridhi, budding writer
Women's day does make sense for urban women who know how to assert their rights and lead their lives with abandon. But ask women in the remote and rural areas who don't even know such a day exist. They continue to find their identity in their husband's name and occupation.

Thinking of empowerment, I'm still waiting for that day when women from every nook and corner of the country know their mind and stop deriving their identity from their better halves. Desire to get empowered, first comes from within, and then extends to the life an individual exactly wants to lead.

Neha Chawla, corporate executive
International Women's Day, in my opinion, only goes to prove the already existing gender-bias in the society.

Deepti Kaul, online journalist
The Indian woman has come a long way and is financially and emotionally independent today. But I don't think that Indian woman is really empowered.

Even today they are not aware of their rights. Even highly educated ladies married from so called 'good families' are abused and harassed and the irony is that speaking in public about their problems is still a social stigma. It is an irony that even in the the age of computers we run campaigns on female foeticide.