Raghu Mehta
The Republic of India extended universal suffrage rights to women after Independence, though with a little reluctance. It was then that we started harnessing the potential abilities, calibre and skills of the other 50 percent of our population. After years of journey, today, we only need to define the realms of a particular professional field and its dimensions are equally defined by Indian women as by men. We have seen Sunita Williams in Space, Science and technology; Arundhatti Bhattacharya and Chanda Kochhar in banking and finance; and Kiran Bedi in administrative fields, occupying lead roles in their professional lives shattering the once imagined glass ceilings.
But one question still persists to this day in the minds of working women- Is the Indian woman really getting a fair deal where she manages both work and home? While the household ‘care economy’ largely goes unpaid for, and worst, least acknowledged; leave aside the otherwise reverence that she expects. Furthermore, fifty percent population of India is being represented by, deplorably, only12 percent women legislators in the Indian Parliament. And whenever the issue of providing reservation to them in Parliament was ever raked up, we are all well aware of the actions of certain political parties of tearing apart the bill into pieces, though symbolically.
History
Turning back into the pages of history, the great philosopher Plato in ‘Republic’ did speak about communism of wives so that they could enjoy equal status in society vis-a-vis men, as early as 4th century B.C. But his idea of commodification of women, restricting their role to giving birth to child remains highly criticised. It was argued that the relationship between husband and wife is spiritual and goes beyond mere physical association.
The women of India were able to come out of their cocoon, of family and household, and started actively contributing to public life during the freedom struggle. The call given by Mahatma Gandhi holds special significance when he persuaded them by stating that “India could attain independence earlier, only if, Indian women could understand freedom and work towards realising it.” Prominent figures like Usha Mehta, Aruna Asaf Ali, Sarojini Naidu, Kasturba Gandhi, Madma Bhikaji Cama, Durga Babhi, Captain Laxmi, Ammu Swaminathan, Rajkumari Amrit Kumari and many others plunged into political arena to work towards the liberation of the motherland. They were quick to realise that India is destined to play a pivotal role in world affairs and its independence is in the interest of the whole world community.
After Indian Independence
Independence was indeed earned with a lot of expectations, arising equally from all sections of the society. But ‘Towards equality’ report published by Indian Govt. in 1974 largely depicted the deteriorating status of women with high maternal mortality rate, low participation in professional work and low sex ratio. And therefore the government immediately tweaked their approach from being ‘welfare’ based to ‘development’ based. Furthermore, Article 44 of the Indian constitution mentions that the government shall strive to secure Uniform Civil Code for all its citizens throughout the territory of India. But certain groups like AIMPLB, being self acclaimed representatives of the Indian Muslims prohibit realization of any such move. And hence the discriminatory laws in religious law books of different communities continue to perpetuate and further deteriorate the condition of women in the society. In rarest circumstances, when she is allowed to breathe and lead a normal life, rest of the community tries to erect barriers by ostracising her in social spheres.
The Indian Government after noticing the observations of the 1974 report, introduced a slew of measures to bring improvement in the condition of women. The Government soon set up National commission for women under a statute, which looks into working of safeguards available to women under constitution and inquires suo-moto into complaints with respect to deprivation of such rights otherwise available to them. The 73rd and 74th Constitutional amendment act empowered her through assured representation in political field, albeit working at the third and final leg of political decentralization, but this gave her a formal platform to raise her concerns and other socio-economic problems faced by them. This allowed her to have shared perception of justice, deprivation and oppression as also to have shared experience of marginalization vis-a-vis power structure.
As an alternative to women reservation in Parliament, ex-Vice President Hamid Ansari, suggests that political parties should push more women workers in political arena and expend their energies to ensure that a girl child goes to school, enjoys access to adequate health facilities and above all autonomy in her choices. But we notice that when women steps out of her house for her professional life, she faces myriad challenges in the form of security etal. The most highlighted incident of Delhi Nirbhaya case in 2012 persuaded Government amidst mounting pressure to introduce more stringent laws safeguarding women’s dignity and the govt replied by introducing Protection of women from sexual assault at workplace Act; amendments in Juvenile Justice (Care and protection of children)Act to try adolescents between the age of 16 and 18 years as adults in case of heinous crimes like rape, murder; amending SC/ST(Protection from atrocities)Act that makes it a punishable offence to touch SC/ST women intentionally without her permission or dedicating her as devdasi to temple.
Realising the other challenges that a women faces in this fast paced world to keep up with modernity issues, the govt had set up Bhartiya Mahila bank in 2012(now merged with SBI) in which all directors are women and loans are given at concessional rates to women. The Govt further launched StandUp India scheme to give credit to women at affordable rates for entrepreneurial ventures and to bring them under the ambit of formal banking. The concept of Self help groups(SHGs) linked with bank accounts has touched upon the lives of 95 million families in India. This program which receives special incentives under ‘PM Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana'(now National Rural Livelihood mission) has enabled 59 million exclusive women SHGs to be setup according to a report by NABARD in 2012-2013.
Reforms
The recent amendment to Maternity Act 1961 extending the time duration of paid leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks has placed India at third spot only after Canada(50 weeks) and Norway(44 weeks), signifies the intent of the govt to augment women’s participation in labour workforce. Besides a mum on the part of paternity leave goes on to reinforce such mindset that child rearing roles are primarily the responsibilities of women. But as feminists like Betty Friedan and Shulamith Firestone say that with the advent of contraceptives, crèche facilities and baby food, women have been able to diffuse child bearing and child rearing roles to the society as a whole-men and women. The Cabinet also lately proposed draft surrogacy bill to regulate surrogacy business in India in order to protect the rights of women.
While Telangana has become the first state in the country to make gender studies compulsory in course curricula especially in colleges, Jammu and Kashmir has been ranked second after Uttar Pradesh in providing relief to female members under PM Ujjwala yojana by efficiently distributing LPG connections to provide smoke-free kitchens. Infact the houses constructed under PM Awas Yojana are registered against the name of the female member of the family.
Govt Schemes like Janani Suraksha Yojana, Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram, PM Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan and the recent National Health policy 2017, all work unilaterally to reduce maternal mortality rate and improve access to institutional delivery in order to improve the overall health profile of the society.
Certainly with so many initiatives being rolled out supplemented by active participation of women, Supreme Court has aptly described that “Women have become active agents of change”. The recent judgement of Supreme Court declaring ‘triple talaq’ or ‘talaq-e-biddat’ as unconstitutional and opening the gates of Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai for women has, in a way, entrenched the position of Indian Muslim women. This has provided them with much needed succor.
Furthermore, as Speaker Lok Sabha, Smt. Sumitra Mahajan, had put it during Women’s parliament at Jaipur in 2016 that “the best way to predict the future is to create it by ensuring egalitarian society where women enjoys economic independence through economic empowerment and protecting their sovereignty and dignity at workplace”. Besides we are living in a globalized world with constantly changing dynamics and ‘the only constant for us should be change’. With this, we can certainly ensure that ‘she’ gets a fair deal.
(The author is formerly Additional Advocate General of J&K High Court)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Follow our WhatsApp channel