Transcript
of a video for a seminar on " Emancipation of Women - Threat &
Challenges" with theme "Men will learn to listen" - organised by
the PUCL at Jamshedpur Women's College, Jamshedpur.
Good evening everyone! And my greetings to
everyone there!
It is indeed a great pleasure to be
speaking to my friends in Jamshedpur, a city that I owe everything to.
I have been requested to speak on the issue
of women’s emancipation and in that context about whether men should be listening
more, indeed to other men, and definitely, to women.
Because listening, as an exercise, is key
to the way we perceive society, it is key to the way we interact and learn from
each other, it is a fundamental building block for what we otherwise call
respect for each other.
The women’s movement was built around
listening and through the 70s, till today, if you see women who are empowered
and are able to reach out for their potential it is because they have learnt
over a period of time to listen to each other, to listen to the world, to
listen to new thinking, and therefore to grow.
My submission to this seminar today is that
just like the women’s movement, we could consider a men’s movement.
Talking to each other about how they
perceive the world around them, how they perceive power, how they perceive
masculinity and in that context how they relate to women. Women they know in
their families, women they meet at the workplace, women on the streets, women
in power, women who are still struggling.
Such a men’s movement led by men
themselves, in our own backyards, in every family, in every home, in every neighbourhood,
school, college, town and community - that kind of a men’s movement is required
now in India to embolden men to become better!
It is an act of empowerment to be able to
listen.
The whole act of listening is an act of
understanding power, respecting power and therefore acting from a place of
empowerment.
I would highly recommend if the seminar can
spend some time thinking, what is it that we need to do make men talk to each
other about difficult issues of relenting power, of examining the idea of male
superiority, of examining the idea that equality is as empowering as superiority.
And I am sure there are people in the
seminar who can delve deeper into this in the coming hours.
I would also urge the team there to not
stop at this seminar and allow this discussion to percolate down to every
household. That is how the women’s movement brought us all up. And that is why
we now need a men’s movement to allow men the space to talk freely, and learn
how to listen to women around them.
Thank you very much for this opportunity
and wish the seminar all success.
Thank you very much!
Comments