MUMBAI, March 6: Call it women's liberalisation. After the corporatisation of the Valentine's Day and Children's Day, now it's the turn of International Women's Day, on March 8.Women, who constitute half the world's population and also its all-consuming consumer market, are being wooed by satellite channels, multinational companies and foreign banks with specials concessions, gift hampers and sponsorships for entertainment programmes celebrating womanhood.The first and probably the most high-profile fixture in the series was a fashion show organised by the women's wing of the Indian Merchants Chamber in association with the fashion house Melange on Thursday. The next day Neela Bhagwat, khayal singer, teamed up in a women's only jugalbandi with trombone player Camilla Sanders. The show was naturally, for women only.There is more to come. Cosmetics major Chambor is bringing Cory Wadia to ``weave magic'' around potential consumers at a special ``makeover session'' on Sunday, elevatingwomen to ``a world of beauty'', in between peddling its cosmetic spread.Citibank too is banking heavily on women. It will bring out a special card for women, the first of which will be handed over to Tejani Vakil, former chief of the Exim Bank. A spokesperson said the card would ``offer special rates at places like supermarkets, boutiques and shopping malls where women homemakers are likely to visit.'' The bank's decision to loosen its credit lines for women may have been prompted by urban women's increasing access to money. Added the spokesperson, statistics show that women repay about 90 per cent of what they borrow, making them useful customers to bank with. The NGO Akshara has organised a `Yuvati Mela' on Saturday, on the theme `Run with your Dreams'. Said Nandita Shah of Akshara, ``The mela was conceptualised at a recent women's conference at Ranchi, where it was felt that the idea of the women's movement had to be communicated to younger women, specially those below 25.'' Another NGO, Men AgainstViolence and Abuse (MAVA), will release a book by sexologist Dr Vithal Prabhu, Sex Education to Adolescents.Channel [V], which by its own admission ``goes women crazy on International Woman's Day,'' has dedicated an entire day's programming to women, entirely sponsored by cosmetics giant Ponds. The channel will showcase women in rock, in concert, in rewind, as well in Speakeasy with the post-feminist icons of the nineties: the Spice Girls. Said a Channel [V] spokesperson, ``Since the last one year, we've been observing various days, like World AIDS Day and Children's Day, and we thought we'd do something for Women's Day as well.''And some hours before Channel [V] kicks off its tribute to womanhood, women's groups will take out a rally, on Saturday afternoon. The theme of this year's rally, a fixture of the women's movement for years now, will be `What 50 years of Independence have meant for Women.' Said Sonal Shukla of Vacha, one of the 17 groups participating in the rally, ``We will takestock of what independence has meant for women, and discuss the unfinished agenda before us.'' The rally, to be addressed by Pushpa Bhave, will also felicitate veteran freedom fighter Kusum Kulkarni, and will host cultural programmes highlighting women's place in struggles, both pre and post-independence.March 8, incidentally, was born out of the demands of working class women in the needle trade in New York in 1908 for better working conditions and right to vote. In 1910, the International Socialist Council declared the day as International Women's Day, which was picked up the world over the next year. From the socialist-driven ideology to brassy commercialism, Women's Day, like the women's movement, has come a long way.
