By: Dr. Phanindra Kalita
A fair and safe society allows everyone to prosper. Like women, men also constitute half of the population in the world. Each individual, it may be men or women is important for the society as a whole. As we know, family is the most important component of a society where a masculine soul or a man plays very important role. They not only play an important role in the development and progress of the family rather contributes towards the progress of community, society and the whole civilization. Their contributions towards the family and society cannot be ignored. A family cannot be stronger without the positive role played by the male members. They contribute a lot for the socio-economic, political and cultural development in the society for which they draw respect from the society too. A male member can be the best son, brother, husband and father. Therefore, it becomes important to boost their physical and mental health to make them more capable so that they can get the enthusiasm to contribute both in the family and in the society. Therefore, the need of celebrating the Men’s Day was felt and hence the International Men’s Day is celebrated to create awareness about men’s physical and mental health and their contribution to families and society.
The 19th of November, every year is celebrated as International Men’s Day. However, this event was founded by Dr. Jerome Teeluchsing, a history lecturer at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad Tabago and the day was first celebrated by him in 1999 according to the IMD official website. The same source indicates that, Uma Challa, a mother of two, has also made significant contributions to popularizing the day. She pioneered the celebration of International Men’s Day in India in 2007 despite being oblivious about the origin of the date. But, significantly, the International Men’s Day is not recognized till now by the United Nations of Organisation (U.N.O.) like the International Women’s Day.
The followings are the six primary objectives of the International Men’s Day:
- To promote influential men from various walks of life.
- To celebrate the positive male contributions to families, marriage, child care, societies, communities and the environment.
- To create awareness about men’s physical and mental health, and wellbeing.
- To highlight discrimination against men in social attitudes, expectations and law.
- To promote gender equality and gender relations.
- To build a safe world where people can feel safe and achieve their full potential.
The international men’s day has been celebrated every year with some specific themes. For the year 2023, the theme is selected to celebrate, “zero male suicide”. It aims to raise awareness of men’s well-being and spread knowledge of men’s issues. The masculine souls or the boys should be taught values, character and responsibilities in their lives for being an ideal man so that they can be the source of courage and inspiration and contribute towards a fair and safe society so that everyone can get the opportunity to blossom. A man may be the great source of inspiration and strength behind others achievement. He is the strong pillar for the members of the family which makes him so special. He is not afraid to be vulnerable hence he can contribute to establish a society free from gender discrimination and gender injustice.
This Day is celebrated across the world to discuss men’s emotional, spiritual, physical and social health and reflect on issues affecting boys and men. It is not about competing with International Women’s Day but to encourage masculine souls to live a life with good values, ideal characters and responsibilities to others. This is the event which also carries its significance to bring gender equality and to improve gender relations across different societies. (The author is an Assistant Professor and Head in the Department of Political Science, Chhaygaon College, Chhaygaon. He can be reached at abhijit.kalitanews@gmail.com)
