She Too Is a Woman...

I shall never forget that cold winter night when I came face to face with her- A woman looked down upon by her own kind, someone despised by the society, a human being who could not avail of even her most basic rights.

I had climbed on into an auto rickshaw without glancing at the others already seated inside. By the time I realized who I was facing, the vehicle had started to move. That gaudy maroon lipstick, bright pink eye shadow and the plunging neckline gave away what she did for a living. And she was accompanied by a scrawny man who kept on stroking her thighs. Disgusted and shocked, I ordered the auto driver to stop. As I climbed out, her eyes caught mine. The way she looked at me stirred something inside my soul. I knew I would never be able to get her out of my mind- she would leave an indelible impact.

She was a woman like me, in her twenties. She too had a life and the right to live it with dignity just the way I do. I suddenly was overwhelmed by a pang of guilt for I knew that she could never live with dignity even if she wanted to. She had no warm clothing to shield her from the cold and nor had she any protection against the risk of AIDS and other STDs her numerous clients might expose her to. Her poor lifestyle & unsafe sexual habits made her a likely victim of another killer disease- Cervical cancer. She was mal nourished and weak. I could say from those white patches on her face and her warty looking skin. Those bald patches in her scalp could have been the result of years of physical abuse or a sign of disease. And add to this, the lack of adequate medical care, financial problems and absence of legal protection.

This is her real story- the plight of a woman stripped of her dignity, exploited by men and ignored by the government. The society needs to realize that these poor females are not to be hated, for they themselves are victims of circumstances. No one would choose such a life for herself, no one becomes a prostitute by choice- she is either born to a prostitute or sold to one by someone who was supposed to protect her.

How can we talk of female empowerment when lakhs of women are subjected to such a miserable existence? We can not call ourselves a civilized society until each human being gets a chance to live with dignity, can we?