Perhaps as a salve to the outraged sentiments of women across Maharashtra, the state government and the police have taken every care to celebrate International Women’s Day in a big way today. Besides organising an oath-taking ceremony at all government offices, its allied offices and education institutions, a number of other programmes have also been lined up. But the fact that they have issued directives at the eleventh hour - giving establishments just a day to prepare makes one wonder about the sincerity of the initiative.

While a special event has been planned at Pune where Chief Minister Prithiviraj Chavan will be submitted a draft of the state policy for women, people at state offices, corporations, public undertakings, and state-run educational institutions will be pledging to maintain dignity and honour of women. While the chief secretary’s order was issued on March 4, four days ahead of International Women’s Day, the government directive listing all the events to be hosted on the occasion was issued only on March 6 giving authorities just a day to work on the arrangements.