' Being a women born in a Oriya family, I was always bounded with social customs and tradition. The word shy, sober, talk slow... constantly remind me of a female child' Its been a journey of 30 years now. The experience of gender segregation exists not only at home but at every sphere of life. The women in rural villages of Odisha has more to follow than the women in urban Odisha. But the charismatic appearance of the women in Bisipada village was a breath taking experience. The women who hardly could step there feet outside the houses were seen sitting in a meeting, working in different sector, they were seen running small shops in the village. As I start interacting with them on the revolution that has occurred and the change they have felt after getting the freedom of stepping out of the village. I was astonished of the kind of remarks I heard form them, the involvement themselves in SHG groups, the running of small business, the participation in the village meeting and many more activities has brought a sign of empowerment in the women of Bisipada. The more I start enquiring the more they were open to me, I could not believe my eyes this were the women of rural village of Odisha ' who are always tagged as shy and less empower'.
I would certainly not agree to all those sociological or anthropological text on women as less empowered. Here is the remark cited by a women in the village 'we are more informed and feel financially independent.
Our decisions are also considered in the family now, earlier we were under too
many restrictions to go out of the family. At present we are fearless to go to
any meeting at the Government office, the family members as well as husband are
supportive for the SHG’ said a 30 year old married women. The myth of pointing women as less empowered and weaker section of the society are vanishing now. A feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft says 'Let us bring up women, not to aspire to advantages which the Constitution denies them, but to know and appreciate those which it guarantees them . . . Men are destined to live on the stage of the world. A public education suits them: it early places before their eyes all the scenes of life: only the proportions are different. The paternal home is better for the education of women; they have less need to learn to deal with the interests of others, than to accustom themselves to a calm and secluded life' (Vindication of rights of women). The women should rather be termed as the 'back bone of the society'
