Indian nation is habituated to self praise. We have self made paradigms of social behaviour and think these have the finality. This is an ancient nation and it has many cut and dried notions about its civilization, some of which are not supported by ground reality. For example, we say that we have been extraordinarily respectful towards womenfolk or that we have allowed freedom to our womenfolk to the extent that we treat them equal with men. We claim that no ritual and social function in our society is complete without the presence of women. Then we move on to quote outstanding Indian female personalities like Sita Mata, Rani of Jhansi, Razia Sultan and Indira Gandhi as the symbols of Indian female heroism. Perhaps more names could be counted. But we are not speaking only of handful of outstanding female personalities. Of course, they are the pride of the nation and they all occupy enviable place in the annals of Indian history. For their valour, service and wisdom we salute them.
The question is of the masses of people in this vast country. We are talking of general attitude of men folks towards the women in and outside their homes, in public and official places, in markets and in crowded places, in educational institutes and in recreational retreats. Can we claim that we have been respectful, tolerant and uniform in our treatment to the fair sex? I am doubtful. In recent years, security situation of women in the capital city of New Delhi, not to speak of other cities and towns, has deteriorated to the extent that a woman fears going out in the market or to a relative’s house after dusk. Instances of chain snatching, purse snatching and assaults on college and office going girls have become a daily affair. Eve teasing, kidnapping, defaming and maligning of females is increasing in towns and cities. Much less is known about their condition in remote villages from where immediate reports are not easily available. Gender discrimination is observed in many private organizations despite anti-gender discrimination laws being in place. Representation of women in administration, judiciary, security forces, police etc. is much below their proportionate population. In some regional societies women education is still a taboo and depreciated by the elders. Full facilities like hostels, toilets, recreation rooms, sports facilities etc. are not available in most of the educational institutions and even the Supreme Court had to issue orders of providing these in all public and private institutions.
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, our Prime Minister issued a message to the nation in which he lauded the role played by Indian women in improving life in our country and strengthening positive aspects of Indian society. His message carries a vision and a hope for the Indian women to be able to play its rightful role in all walks of life. How can this country develop and make progress if half of the population that is of women remains backward in any aspect? The socio-economic standing of women in India is the lowest among 16 Asia Pacific countries, even less than Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, indicating that much more needs to be done to achieve gender parity, says a MasterCard survey. According to MasterCard’s latest Index of Women’s Advancement, which measures the socio-economic standing of women across Asia Pacific, progress towards gender parity is “still sluggish”. The report adds that although women in Asia Pacific are increasingly more educated than their male counterparts, parity progress towards gender is still sluggish, especially in the areas of business leadership, business ownership and political participation.
Indian women are not behind any other women in the world in intelligence, hard work, resourcefulness and in taking care of the home. They have the natural gift of lending full support to their husband and family in order to make the household a happy place to live in. But it is the men folks who are miserly in a number of things when it comes to allowing parity to women in all walks of life. Therefore what is needed at this point of time is a change of mindset. We need to come out of stereotypes and adjust ourselves to the demands of the modern age, an age of science, technology and quick reform. We need to provide opportunities and mechanism so that the latent talent in women folks is provided space to flourish and grow. This is not what the Government can do by enacting laws; it requires voluntary action by the male segment of our society. Rabindranath Tagore once said that free and self-confident women will look straight into the eyes of men when they walk the road. It brings our nation discredit when a surveying reports shows that socio-economic status of Indian women is inferior to the status of women in many neighbouring and less significant countries. We need to change our mindset and we need develop new and progressive paradigms of status for our women.
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