Political Diary
New Delhi, 24 January 2015
Making ‘Her’Story….
BUT WILL MALES BE FAIR?
By Poonam I Kaushish
In this silly season wherein
Republic Day festivities have been drenched in US President Obama magic,
setting hearts aflutter, entrancing netagan,
enthralling CEO’s and defining 21st century partnership it took
a plain-speaking Modi to expose India’s paradox: Indian mindset continues to be
trapped in 18th century “mental illness” of girl-boy inequality
wherein it doesn’t give a rat’s ass about its stree dhan!
Seeking to address this gender
imbalance and discrimination against the girl child, the Prime Minister
unveiled his ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ last
week in Panipat, Haryana. A State, which boasts of a declining sex ratio 775
girls for 1,000 boys and is infamous for female foeticide.
His urgency is understandable given
UN World Population Fund alarming analysis, India has one of the highest sex
imbalances with the sex ratio declining to 914 and 2000 girls being killed daily.
Already, 70 villages are sans a single girl while in others the sex ratio is as
low as 500. Demographers warn that there would be a shortage of brides in the
next 20 years thanks to adverse juvenile sex ratio, combined with overall
decline in fertility.
Add to this, of the 12 million girls
born, one million do not see their first birthdays. The fear and struggle to
survive swallow most of a girl’s life even if she is ‘allowed’ to live. Topped
by nearly 136,000 maternal deaths out of 30 million pregnancies occur annually
due to frequent abortions leading to 9 out of 10 pregnant women suffering from
mal-nutrition and anemia.
Raising a moot point: Why is the
fairer sex treated as paraya dhan? A bhojaa? Why are teenage girls sold for
cheap money by poor families? Worse, viewed as sex objects? A plaything of
males to satisfy their libido and massage their egos? Have we decided to
surrender shamelessly to horrendous archaic brutality and sadism? Said goodbye
to the protecting our women’s izzat?
This is not all. Daily newspapers
scream headlines of the Ugly Sexmanic Indian wherein. young 2,4,8 year old
girls are raped…minors in moving trains, teenagers snatched off the streets in
moving cars and working women in taxis. In a recent survey of 150 safe cities, New Delhi and Mumbai are
ranked 139 and 126 at the bottom of the heap.
Turn to any mohalla, city or State the story is the same: Sexual innuendoes,
overtures, men salaciously salivating on porn, women's bodies to harassment,
molestation and rape abounds. Sending petrified shivers down one’s spine. A yovan raj. And we call ourselves a
civilised society!
Perhaps it has something to do with
our patriarchal lineage. Remember former Delhi’s
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit assertion, “Girls should not wear jeans and
exposing clothes, instead wear salwar
kameezes. They have no business to be driving around at 2 am in the
morning.”
Or Karnataka’s tongue-in-cheek “Pink Chaddi” campaign to take on right
wing Sri Ram Sene Chief Praveen Togadia who brutally attacked women in a
Mangalore pub in January 2009 ostensibly for “violating traditional Indian
norms”. And male leaders referring to women opponents as dayans and witches. Sic.
Clearly, in a society heavily loaded
in favour of men, several women face sexual abuse at work yet stay quite to
avoid further harassment and unwanted attention. Or are hesitant to speak out
fearing they will be dubbed ‘loose charactered’ at best or ostracized at worst.
Either which way the damage is done.
Alas, as our polity brags about Mera Desh Mahan and Brand India women
and young girls live in an increasingly unsafe environment wherein they are
viewed as sex objects and mince-meat for male lust camouflaged as human
animals. Not a few complain that to rise professionally they need a ‘godfather’
who can make or break them. Comply or reconcile to battling it out at every
level.
A profession where sexual abuse is
rampant is the film industry. Actresses complain of “couch” tactics where it is
extremely difficult to land a film. Not only are actresses asked to show lot of
skin but visit the director, producer, actor post shooting. In the advertising
world colleagues’ comment that women should wear things that make them look
luscious, some pinch while greeting you,
Who can deny that the political
casting couch is worse or better (depending on how one looks at it) than
Bollywood’s casting couch. A spicy tale dripping sex of our desi Adams and Eves in the political
Garden of Eden, an ongoing saga of pegs and legs, the rulers paarde-ke-piche-choli-ke-neeche antics
caught with their pyjamas, dhotis or
lungis down literally. Which promises to take one to even greater heights
of ecstasy and glory.
Last year Malayalam actress Shwetha
Menon accused Congress MP Peethambara Kurup of grabbing her with sexual
intention. A finding of the Association for Democratic Reforms shows that two
MPs and 8 UP MLAs and seven West Bengal
legislators have serious rape charges against them. In all, 360 MLAs have
confessed to charges of outraging a woman’s modesty. Such is the state of
affairs we are immune to this.
Pertinently, if Modi and his NDA
storm troopers feel so strongly about uplifting the fair sex, why doesn’t he
usher in change from the top, by introducing the ‘defunct’ 108 Constitutional
Amendment, Women Reservation Bill reserving 33% reservation to women in
Parliament and State Assemblies in the Lok Sabha. Remember, ‘her’ story was
made when the historic Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha in March 2010, due to
Congress’s Sonia Gandhi stern “walking-her-talk-on-the-Bill. But trust our male
chauvinists to play spoil sport and ensure it remained in cold storage.
The truth is that nature created
women and men as equals which the Constitution endorses. However, thanks to Manuwadi women came to be treated as the
lesser sex. Thus, affirmative action is essential to jump-start the process of
equality as it would wash away the reality of inequality and translate it into
a vision of equality. Wherein today’s unequals would become tomorrow’s equals
in decision-making.
If India really wants to develop, it
will have to find ways to back up laws with quality action, not shoddy
symbolism. If we want to use our finest resource, we have to start taking our Stree Shakti seriously and treating them
like worthwhile investments. In the final crunch: Follow a ‘womb to tomb’
policy of keeping one girl-child happy.
Given our male-dominated society, the
time has come for women to speak up as it will make more people aware and come
out in support thereby taking action collectively. Alongside, the right
groundwork must be laid for women education, welfare and healthcare at anganwadi, panchayat, zila parishads etc.
It remains to be seen whether Modi’s
promise of uplifting the fair sex will end up as nothing more than tokenism. In
a country that ranks 114th among 134 in gender disparities, it is imperative
that we create a level-playing field. Good governance is not gender-specific.
The big challenge now is to take the move forward, give a push for empowerment
and ensure that the benefits become a reality. Can we look forward to a naya mahila daur kab? ---INFA
(Copyright, India
News and Feature Alliance)
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