Key to Her Happiness

Happiness is a small nine-alphabet word that means more than just this world. It encompasses a lot of terms that matter to one’s life; hence, it varies from individual to individual. One might get happiness out of gorging delicious food; one might get happiness for purchasing the things that is craved for; one might get happy for seeing someone and being with someone; one may feel happy to be recognized and so on. Different people; different parameters of happiness- that is all we can say. However, have you ever realized that there is always a woman either at the core, or the backdrop, to cook the recipe of happiness in differing proportions? That woman could be your mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, neighbor, boss, acquaintance or even a stranger. Despite of all the odds that she suffers, considering the health sensitivities and the impact of societal behavior and hypocrisy, she ensures that she contributes in your happiness quotient.

No matter how long the list of happiness is that pumps this quotient, nothing can beat three factors: being respected (gender parity), pampered and cared for (ending poverty and protect the planet). On the occasion of International Day of Happiness, which is around the corners, let us just focus on HER happiness.

When is the International Day of Happiness? It is celebrated across the world every year on 20th of March. Wondering what this day is all about? “It’s a day to be happy, of course! Since 2013, the United Nations has celebrated the International Day of Happiness as a way to recognize the importance of happiness in the lives of people around the world. In 2015, the UN launched the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that seek to end poverty, reduce inequality, and protect our planet – three key aspects that lead to well-being and happiness. Last year, the Smurfs rallied behind the 17 Sustainable Development Goals for the International Day of Happiness” UN mentions on its page. The United Nations invites each person of any age, plus every classroom, business and government to join in celebration of the International Day of Happiness.

Will you make it just another day, or are you planning to end the disparity? Yes, let’s start the talk with gender disparity. All are born free and equal. It is notjust a moral or a belief that needs to stay close after we leave the school. We need to implement it in real world the way we use our basic math skills to calculate day-to-day expenditure. The patriarchy system that yet exists in the society puts women next to men, who are considered weak. They are perceived as someone who needs to be protected, and whose life’s main goal is to get her wedded when she grows up. In the country, where Goddesses are revered for their power and justice, their humanly incarnations (girls or women) often face injustice. Though times are changing now, yet a lot of still need to break the shackles and come out of their shells. We all have a lot of unfinished tasks in this segment that are to be laid.

How can we forget that the mere birth of a girl child yet raises question-marked faces? Some of the studies state that in 2011, India’s child sex ratio was at 914 girls (1000 boys), which is the lowest since the country’s Independence with Haryana’s a child sex ratio 834 girls to 1000 boys, far worse than the national average. According to 2001 Census, in Punjab, the sex ratio (zero-six age group) declined from 875 to 793 (-82 points), in Haryana the decrease was from 879 to 820 (-59 points); in Himachal Pradesh this decrease was from 951 to 897 (-54 points); in Gujarat, it was from 928 to 878 (-50 points); in Chandigarh the reduction was from 899 to 845 (-54 points); and in Delhi from 915 to 865 (-50 points). Wow! The statistics indicate that many people still don’t think that girls have the right to be born in the first place.The country that holds Goddesses at supreme positions and are revered for their power and justice, their humanly incarnations (girls or women) are not allowed to exist.

Give a mother, the happiness to nurture her reflection. Give a baby, a chance to enter our world and make a difference.Talking about the measures to stop female infanticide and feticide, a Senior Gynaecologist and Founder, International Fertility Centre for Human Rights Day 2018 highlighted three solutions: a) Making the people get over their societal notions, grave thoughts and stereotypical mentality of seeing the girl child as a burden. b) The sex determination and the involvement of the doctors should be completely done away with from the root level, which is usually in return of hefty payments. c) The government should deliver incentives and monetary remunerations to families that have more than one girl child. Let the goddess be welcomed to your family the way you welcome a baby boy.

Even if a baby girl is born, in many parts of the world this still happens that, she doesn’t get adequate survival facilities including food. The first goal of Sustainable Development Goal is “No Poverty” and the second one is “Zero Hunger.” Goal 2 is elaborated as "End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture," which states that by 2030 all of us should be able to end hunger and all the forms of malnutrition. This goal can be met with doubling the agricultural productivity and the incomes of the small-scale food producers, especially women and indigenous people, by ensuring sustainable food production systems, while progressively improving land and soil quality. Agriculture is the single largest employer in the world, providing livelihoods for 40% of the global population. In fact, it is the largest source of income for poor rural households. Women account for approximately 43% of the agricultural labor force in developing countries, and over 50% in parts of Asia and Africa. Yet she is deprived of food and nutrition. Discriminating between girls and boys often squeezes the access to nutrition and healthcare services and well-being. Healthy and adequate eating is imperative for women.

Another facility she is yet to be privileged with is having adequate sanitation, hygiene and toilet facility. A study reveals that India has 17% of the world’s population, but accounts for 60% of all people in the world without sanitation. 10% of urban India defecates in the open – these are majorly people who have migrated to towns in search of better earning opportunities, but have failed to find a home and live in slums.

Despite the fact that open defecation has declined by 31 percent since 1990, approximately 300 million females (women and girls) in India still have no other choice left with them than defecating in the open areas. Every morning, they struggle to deal with the nature’s call as they squat with a mug of water in a field while keeping a watch for the evil-minded people. In case you aren’t aware, health and sanitation have been considered as part of Article 21 on various occasions by the courts in India.

6th Goal of SDG is focused on “Clean Water & Sanitation,” and underlines that 2.4 billion people worldwide don’t have access to basic sanitation services like toilets or latrines. The situation of unavailability of toilets becomes a host to urinary infections, which can be really treacherous for women. Having women-friendly toilets is another solution to resolve this issue. The women friendly toilets must be easy to access and must have a women care taker and guards to restrict the threats like the loitering of men around the toilets. These toilets should be well maintained and have adequate supply of water too. These toilets should alsohave sanitary pads in store.

Additionally, menstrual taboos should be uprooted. Let the women have the freedom to attend their nature’s call and feel happy in being a woman.There are a number of girls, who drop out from the schools after they attain puberty. Hypocrisy of not sitting here and there; not touching this and that; and much more, also plays a key role here. Also, the onset of periods makes them feel inhibited.Consequently, they hesitate a lot in going out and again social taboo and stigma plays a key role in this.They are expected to take over the house and help in domestication after a certain age. If schools come up with the solutions to provide the girls with sanitary pads and hygienic conditions then it will be a huge step to retain girl students as well asprevent them from calling quits to education merely for such problems. Anyway, getting many girl children enrolled for studies is still an issue, and in such condition if they are not retained then this will not add to any positive impact. Education is not just her birth right, but also survival right.

Coming to education, let’s come to the aspect of empowerment and freedom from poverty. Only if a woman is educated, she can make generation educated and financially independent.Working women contribute to one-sixth of economic output, among the lowest shares in the world and half the global average, as studies reveal. However, this unrealized contribution of women might be one of the possible reasons for India being poorer. In fact, on the worst part, the female employment rate in India (both formal and informal economy), has dropped from 35% in 2005 to just 26% now. Improved female employment rates compared with males would provide India with more than 200 million workers, which is much more than the European Union has of either gender, and sufficient to fill the employment demands in the factories of the rest of Asia.

UN stated, “…Educated and skilled workers are in great demand, but roughly a quarter of young people – most of them female – are currently neither employed or in education or training. Of the 1 billion young people – including 600 million adolescent girls – that will enter the workforce in the next decade, more than 90% of those living in developing countries will work in the informal sector, where low or no pay, abuse and exploitation are common.”When a woman starts earning, she spends some parts of her earning on the future of her children, who are also the future of the country and on improving their scale of living, which means improving the levels of the country.Hence, encouraging and preparing female skilled force is of utmost importance and nearly equal to welcoming Goddess Lakshmi, and letting her shower blessings on the country.

Coming to the aspect of protecting planet, we must underline the fact that climate change is real and it doesn’t discriminate between genders, but its impacts do, and they are intense on women. A lot of women in the flood and storm areas die because they wait for their children, family members, etc. to escape that dismal situation. Many women in rural India fall victim to floods, storms, and other calamities due to their attires, like saree, Ghaghara, etc. And, this restricts their movements and minimizes their time-band of escape. Statistics by UN reveal that 80% of people displaced by climate change are women.

Climate stress can also cause a good amount of havoc on the heart health of women. Dr. Taruna Dua, Consultant, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Aakash Healthcare Super Speciality Hospital said, “A change in the climatic conditions is associated with a rise in the prevalence of infective agents enhance occurrences of infectious diseases, particularly vector borne diseases. The pregnant women being the vulnerable group tend to get more affected. There is also increase incidence of lung cancer, asthma, Heart attack, and strokes and dementia in older women. While these are the direct impacts there are also indirect impacts like occupational impacts, Under Nutritional Impacts and also mental stress.”

Dr. Walia Murshida Huda, Sr. Medical Officer, Healthians, shared about how climate change is affecting the women. Some of them are: a) generally, many women suffer from various deficiencies like, vitamin deficiencies, calcium deficiencies, anaemia, and iodine deficiency. The sudden climatic changes like cold weather, extreme hot temperature can trigger these deficiencies and make it difficult to handle. b) Air pollutants cause several respiratory problems, including affecting the fetal growth and exposes both the mother and child to health issues. c) The last few years have seen a sudden spike in the temperature during summers. The hot temperature can cause several health ailments like weakness, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance. Kids are more sensitive to these changes. This adds on to botheration, effort, and worry, especially for mothers, making it difficult for them to handle. d) Rainy season brings with it a sudden bout of rains that cause floods and water logging problems. Such problems give rise to diseases like dengue, malaria, Chikungunya, cholera, jaundice, typhoid, infections; diarrhea etc. e) Water scarcity makes storage of water a huge task, wasting a lot of time and energy of the women managing it.

* The climatic changes have increased the risk of various cancers and chronic diseases. Women are more concerned about the health of their families and the rise in the incidence rate due to climatic changes exposes everyone to health challenges, and Dr. Parinita Kaur, Consultant, Internal Medicine, Aakash Healthcare - Super Specialty Hospital, added that health symptoms shouldn’t be ignored by women and cited these: “General weakness is the most common symptom we encounter. It could mean anything from a nutritional deficiency to chronic infections, anaemia, cardiac disease, malignancy to even psychological disorders like depression, prolonged fever, menstrual irregularities, post-menopausal or post coital bleeding, new onset headaches, any swelling or lumps on the body, etc.”

Women, unsurprisingly, are more prone to stress. They utilize all of their neurons and energy looking after miniscule of things, and worrying about all. Many studies state that women differ from men not only in their emotional responses to stress, but also in their physical and mental health, particularly their acute and chronic stress may take a greater toll. They may face many problems due to stress that includes irregular periods, acne breakouts, hair loss, poor digestion, depression, insomnia, weight gain, and many more. Stress in pregnant women may cause problems in delivery.

Let all the worries be warded off from her status of “being a female.” Let her happiness be nurtured, in a real sense. A gift on special occasion may not have lasting effect as much as paying her respect and recognizing her efforts would. On this day, let us take an oath to make a women-sensible-world that considers all the women in the world as human beings first, not as weighed on the balance of genders. Let the parity exist in all forms and the justice be done. A happy woman is a healthy woman. A happy woman is a free woman. A happy woman is a woman. And, a happy woman is a human.