Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: November 19 marks International Men's Day which inaugurated in 1999 in Trinidad and Tobago and is celebrated in more than 70 countries around the world. It’s an annual international event supported by the United Nations that focuses on men's and boys' health, improving gender relations, promoting gender equality, and highlighting positive male role models. This year the theme is "Keeping Men and Boys safe".
Our world has never been an equal space for men and women and history has been a witness to this fact. Thus several institutions and organisations have been established to protect women’s rights and safeguard their interests. But like women, men too deal with issues which are usually swept inside the carpet.
According to a local NGO in India fighting for "men's rights", not even a single study has been undertaken by the government of India to look into issues faced by men in the domestic sphere since Independence.
Alike women, men too want and demand some authority to look into their issues exclusively. In case of familial and matrimonial disputes, men, specially in India usually lack a support system and thus waver towards wrong and hurtful areas. So, this day is a good reminder that men too want care and support and there is a dire need to set up agencies which caters to their interests exclusively.
The key challenges to be tackled this year are:
Keeping men and boys safe by tackling male suicide;
Keeping boys safe so they can become tomorrow’s role models;
Tackling our tolerance of violence against men and boys;
Boosting men’s life expectancy by keeping men and boys safe from avoidable illness and death;
Keeping men and boys safe by promoting fathers and male role models.
