Plight of women

Subcontinental problem

Even as Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old activist who advocated girls’ education, recovers from the bullet shots by Taliban at Swat in Pakistan, there is no let up in atrocities against women in the subcontinent. Haryana in India witnessed another rape of a dalit girl and yet another honour killing by parents of their daughter in the northern part of Pakistan. In Delhi, a married girl committed suicide, with her daughter, because her in-laws had not stopped demanding dowry even after five years of marriage. 

These incidents are distance-wise removed from one another and they even differ in gory details. Still they are similar in intent: A woman cannot claim any right, much less equality, in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh. I am sure that women in the west too undergo indignities but their advanced societies have sophisticated ways to humiliate the female.

In this part of the world, a girl is generally considered a curse or burden from birth. While a boy is regarded as a bread-winner, a girl is a damper on ambitions of a family. The economic factor only aggravates the social factor and it would be wrong to assume that the earning potential of a girl is the real reason. But the real tragedy is that the women themselves, mothers or mothers-in-law, are the perpetrators of crimes. They are behind the dowry tragedy or honour killing. A feeble protest is seen in a few brutal cases but it is forgotten the following day. Then it is business as usual. I thought that the attack on Malala would unite Pakistan in pain and it would rise as one nation to intensify operations in Waziristan and Swat to crush the Taliban.

No doubt, anger is there but it cannot be channelised without any concerted effort or action. Religious fanatics appear to come in the way and they are the ones who call the shots. All statements emanating from the army suggest that it will give no quarter to the terrorists, meaning thereby Taliban,  but the operation against them lacks determination. This may be partly true because Taliban are said to have penetrated the army ranks itself.

In India, the most developed nation in the region, the voice against the atrocities on women is probably the loudest. There are many political and social women leaders—the all-powerful Sonia Gandhi included. Even then they have not been able to do much, for example, they have not been able to secure the 33 per cent reservations for women. The bill, after having been in limbo for many years, has only made it to the Rajya Sabha. The prospects of its approval by this house of Parliament are almost nil.

Baseless fear

Male chauvinists, particularly among the dalits and backward classes, are vehemently opposed to reservations to women on the ground that the concessions would be cornered by the urbanite educated. This fear is without any basis because the election of women heads in half of the panchayats shows that at the ground level their confidence is immense.

‘Men and Women 2012,’ an official report, indicates a marginal participation of women in governance and economy sections. Even the health, education, finance and crime indicators are causes for worry. Under the judiciary, there are two woman judges out of 26 judges in the Supreme Court and only 54 women judges out of 634 judges in high courts. This lopsided participation is reflected in other echelons too. Women only occupied 10 per cent of the total central jobs in 2009. In institutions such as scheduled commercial banks, the scenario slightly better at 16.6 per cent in 2010.

As for the Muslim women, the restrictions are even wider. That they cannot enter most religious places is common. The shrine at Nizamuddin at Delhi is closed to them. The custodians of Haji Ali dargah at Mumbai have issued a fiat to disallow women from entering their premises. This was done for the first time since the shrine’s foundation hundreds of years ago. In contrast, Islam is progressive enough not to have any stigma against widow remarriage.

It is really man’s insensitivity to the feelings of women that is behind the pitiable plight of women. He neither understands nor appreciates what his wanton attitude does to her individuality. Show of violence is only part of his assumption to be superior.

The reason why women are the first target for rape in riots is not so much avarice as the humiliation sought to be heaped upon them.

Unfortunately, the government treats rape as just one of the crimes. The punishment should be meted out not only to those who commit it but all those who silently watch it happen. They are as guilty as the members of Khap, the panchayat in Hayarana who sentence young girls for wearing clothes they like or wanting to marry the person they like.

A movement is needed—in all the three countries of the subcontinent—to raise strong protests to make the public aware of the atrocities committed against women.
The purpose is how to give women their rightful place in the society and make them feel that they are inferior to none in any field, political, economy or social. The development in a country has no meaning if the society does little against discrimination and denial to women perpetuated for centuries.