Status and Role of women in Pulbazar by Prayash Gupta

This is one of the lovely article written by Mr Prayash Gupta, firstly a resident of  Pulbazar. He's currently a faculty in English at Sikkim Manipal University. Born & brought up at Pulbazar, Prayash did his early schooling from S.t Robert's H.S school and passed his Madhyamik Pariksha from Vidya Jyoti Academy, Bijanbari. He, then, finished is 10+2 from S.t Robert's H.S SChool, Darjeeling and completed his graduation from Darjeeling Government College.

Prayash is already a well-known faces in Himalayan Literature. Recenly, his profile was included in ''Asia Pacific Who's Who''(Vol. XIV) by Research Editors of Rifacimento International. In 2016, he was conferred with the honorary "Rising Personality of Asia Award" by  Indian Institute of Oriental Heritage. To sum up his work, Prayash is the author of "Ishwar, pick-up the call," "Poetry Pilgrimage," "Poetry in Paradise" and an autobiography "Fortitude."

We feel delighted when we watch about the success of Mary kom or Saina Nehwal, or read through the newspaper columns about the shining stars Priyanka or Deepika, as these women are making our nation proud. Women are working hand on hand with men to build a better society, gaining success and leading forward in almost all sphere of life. So, in this article, I shall be highlighting the status and
role played by the women in our own society, as they are the torchbearers of the present world.

Nestled in lap of the Himalayas, Pulbazar is a peaceful place where different communities reside harmonically heading towards a bright future. Undisputedly, the village life provides a rich flow of social interaction as we can witness ourselves. I can behold the helping nature, friendliness and Indianess overflowing through the veins of my villagers. An active participation can be seen by our women in the Social life. Whenever there is a marriage or a funeral, they lead in front row right from the preparatory works until the end of the task. There are different Self Help Group (SHG) formed by the women wing of our village like Cheli SHG, Aama SHG, Chota Rangit SHG and Sagarmata SHG. These groups have not only worked on their respective objective, but have also actively participated in different social productive work like the Tree Plantation Campaign, Construction of pony road to Devi Than (executed through MGNREGA), Village Cleaning campaign and many more.

Our women are also playing an active role in the preservation and refinement of Culture. Whenever there is Puja or festive occasion in our village, the attendance and participation of the women wing is maximum. Madheshiya Kanya Group is the newly formed group with an objective of organizing different religious programme and helping each other during the time of their need. They also did work like taking out Ratha Yatra in Durga Puja, organizing and properly executing Chhat Puja and many more.

We can see almost all girl children attending schools, leading towards the complete literacy of women in coming days. At present, most of our women and girls are self-dependent. Apart from maintaining and running smoothly their home affairs, our women and girls are working in different fields of life: some of them are employed as an Airhostess, Nurses, Engineers, Teachers, ICDS, some of them are working overseas, some are employed in 100 Days working scheme, some are engaged in vocational training while others are running their shops.

So, on the overall analysis, we can see that our women are playing an active role in different walks of life and contributing for better society. Their role, for the development of family, society and country is appreciable. So, this article is solely dedicated to them.