From the Chairperson’s Desk

Leena Gangopadhyay

Welcome to the official website for the West Bengal Commission for Women

No one is born a woman. They are conditioned into becoming one, as each day of their lives pass by. In the process, her life, her experiences, her dreams and the shattering of her dreams make her into what she becomes. An entity, very different from that of a man.  The society and patriarchy conditions them into their femalehood. She is taught that she can never lift her eyes, she is taught that she has to cover herself and save her dignity from the prying eyes of the men, she is taught that she has to become sufficient for a man she has never seen, a complete stranger. The processes slowly weld her, melt her, and re-forge her into a meek, submissive and demure person with little individuality, because she has to pass the test of becoming the good girl.

And yet, despite all the odds of patriarchy and the red eyes of tradition, women are breaking the shackles. Slowly but surely, they are stepping up in the roles of leaders, heads  of states, writers, researchers, doctors, pilots, scientists, players, civil servants, and even entrepreneurs. Anything a man can be, and many more. Which has proved time and again, that women have no weaknesses, unless moulded into it.

But even this has not changed the situation much. Women are still seen as citizens of the second grade. Virginia Wolff had called for a place that a woman could call their own home, ages ago! Time has passed, the situations have changed, and yet, women still are treated like refugees, in the homes of their father, or their husband. The society does not allow the woman to have a home of her own. She is at her father’s place as a child, at her husband’s place as an adult, and at her son’s house when she grows old. It is a never-ending chain that needs to be broken. Right now.

The time has come for her to know her rights and legal provisions for her safety, and use them as and when she needs to.

The time has come for her to stand up to all sorts of restrictions, and try to subjugate her. But one can never fight a battle without weapons, weapons that will empower her, weapons that will help her resist, weapons that will assist her in standing up to each and every insult, injustice and indignity hurled at her. The weapons? Education and Economic Independence.

When a bunch of young girls from Purulia unfurl their green ornas like a waving flag, or when a group of girls come down from the hills, like a river in full flow, fluttering and giggling, it sounds as if music to the ears. As the women from the hills and the plains come together, to empower themselves, it is the ultimate expression of the freedom and independence of women, all over the world. The world is forced to take notice of these girls, champions, who can be stowed away and marginalized no more.

We sincerely hope that more and more women come up and join us in this journey that breaks the shackles that uplifts them.

We sincerely hope that in this eternal drive for perfection in the society, may women come up to the first row, with bright faces and brighter futures.