Hyderabad: On the occasion of International Women's Day, the Telangana government has declared a holiday for all women working for the state government. Women have been given provisions to take special casual leave on March 8.

The tradition has been in existence in Telangana from 2016.  In keeping with tradition, the Telangana government directed all government departments to implement the order. However, unlike in the introductory year, there was no felicitation of women achievers from different walks of life.

In 2016, women not only got special casual leave but women achievers from different walks of life were honoured. At the event held at Telugu Lalitha Kala Thoranam, women the awards were split into 13 categories with Rs 1 lakh cash prize each.

The categories included education, business, social service among other fields.

Women's Day is not only celebrated to honour women achievers but to also  advocate gender equality. The first such event was held in New York on February 28, 1909 organised by Socialist Party of America. The event was organised to identify and honour the protest marked by garment workers. The idea of observing a day as Women's Day internationally was proposed at the International Women's Day conference in Copenhagen in 1910. Initially March 13 was celebrated as Women's Day. But after many discussions in 1913, March 8 was unanimously accepted as Women's Day. It became more popular and internationally accepted in 1975 when the United Nations Organisation started celebrating it.