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 21^st century partnership it took a plain-speaking Modi to expose India’s paradox: Indian mindset continues to be trapped in 18^th 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)