International Men’s Day: Why it is on November 19, Indian woman’s role behind it

What is International Men’s Day?

According to the official IMD website, “On November 19, International Men’s Day celebrates worldwide the positive value men bring to the world, their families and communities. We highlight positive role models and raise awareness of men’s well-being.”

“International Men’s Day encourages men to teach the boys in their lives the values, character and responsibilities of being a man. Mahatma Gandhi said, “We must become the change we seek.” It is only when we all, both men and women, lead by example that we will create a fair and safe society that allows everyone the opportunity to prosper,” the website adds.

Every year, a theme is chosen for IMD events. This year, it is ‘Positive Male Role Models’. Last year, the theme was ‘Zero Male Suicide’, while in 2022, it was ‘Helping Men and Boys’.

How was International Men’s Day established?

Calls for a day dedicated to celebrating men were being made since the late 1960s in the West, when Second Wave feminism had thrown questions about gender equality and women’s rights into the mainstream. That time, February 23 had been one of the dates floated for the Day. Over the years, isolated efforts were made in different countries to observe IMD, but the campaign did not gather momentum.

As the IMD website points out, in the early 1990s, organisations in the United States, Europe, and Australia “held small events in February at the invitation of Professor Thomas Oaster, who directed the Missouri Center for Men’s Studies at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.” However, after 1994, this event petered out, with only Malta continuing to observe the Day.

The current version of the event was founded by Dr Jerome Teelucksingh, a history lecturer at University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tabago, on November 19, 1999. Australian organisations working for men’s rights were part of this event, and they worked to involve other countries in the celebrations.

Why is International Men’s Day celebrated on November 19?

In a 2008 interview, Teelucksingh had said, “I chose that day for a few reasons- it is my dad’s birthday…. I hoped that other dads would see him as a role model for fatherhood and parenthood. Secondly, it was the day in which the football team in my country [ Trinidad and Tabago] created a level of unity which crossed gender, religious and ethnic divisions [in 1989].”

Who is the Indian woman who helped popularise IMD?

The IMD website acknowledges the contributions of Uma Challa, an Indian men’s rights activist.

“It should be noted that International Men’s Day as a global celebration owes a huge debt to Indian Men’s Advocate and mother of two Uma Challa. Almost single-handedly, Uma Challa pioneered the celebration of International Men’s Day in India in 2007…”

Uma Challa is the founder of Save the Indian Family Foundation, non-profit based in Bengaluru. Challa had worked for men’s rights in the US too. In India, she started campaigning against laws she believed were biased against men. According to a 2016 article in VICE, Challa is an “American-educated biologist” who joined men’s rights activism around 2005 “after she was implicated in a dowry-harassment case with her brother.”

Do we really need an International Men’s Day?

There are many reasons Men’ Day is not observed on the same scale as Women’s Day. Some say that specific days are designated to highlight the struggles of a marginalised group, and in a patriarchal society, “everyday is men’s day”.

Others have argued that a conversation about men’s rights often turns into bashing of women and feminism, thus moving the focus away from men’s concerns.

However, many gender activists have pointed out that ‘men’ is not a homogenous group, and patriarchal structures and expectations often harm men too. Statistics from various fields show men are struggling: more men than women kill themselves; men are more at risk of heart attacks; more younger men seem attracted to extreme political ideologies, as evident from voting numbers in several countries; and an ‘epidemic of loneliness’ among men is increasingly being talked about. In India, schoolgirls often perform better than boys in board exams.

Thus, experts say that a day to focus attention on men’s problems — bullying, loneliness, depression, violence, health, pressure to perform the alpha male identity — is important, as long as it does that, and does not descend into the ‘women are the enemy’ trap.

Feminists have also pointed out that if men are isolated, unhappy, and lonely, the world becomes more unsafe for women and other genders.