Am I fortunate to be an Indian woman? Yes, I love my country and am willing to do anything for its prosperity but is my country willing to do anything for my safety besides making laws? The prosperity of a woman is a thought so far off from being achieved because here we start with the survival as one. We women follow all the rules set out by the society for us, “don’t go out late”, “don’t roam around with a boy”, “have a male escort with you”, “do not wear provocative clothing”, “do not engage the eve teaser”, “ignore the comments” and many more of the sort yet we are sexually assaulted, raped, molested, man handled, enslaved, beaten, looked down upon as liabilities; why?
The legal movement is done and dealt with but there is no implementation. Equal rights for women, is being practiced in the urban life but is it even a notion in the rural areas? Is it being brought to uneducated and illiterate women all across the nation? We don’t know. Yes, there are NGOs like SEWA, Snehalaya, Azad and many more such who are working to expose and strengthen women in India and also make them aware of their right’s as citizens and they have made tremendous amount of progress but most of the times it’s the oppressors who have to be educated. The oppressed are being made aware of their status and rights and roles in the society but the oppressors continue to grow in large numbers.
Women, in India are sexually and physically abused which most of the time concludes in murder by the assailant only on the basis of their biological sex. These heinous acts are a result of the long-standing gender inequalities in the country. There are various factors that contribute to the mentality that the society harbours towards women like;
- Religion:
women are considered an inferior sex; their bodies are portrayed as the sin of lust and in many ancient stories they are termed as “the object of lust”. Women in most religions are seen as inferior, property of man, sins, weak, bringers of disease and dearth (the story of pandora’s box). They are shown to be witches and demons who sway men away from their true destinies and are the eventual cause of their demise. A good woman is shown to be bearing children and serving her husband without question.
- Caste and poverty:
Women belonging to a lower caste are more than often the usual victims of sexual assaults. In these situations, rape has been an overused tool to maintain power and discrimination which has led to an increase in the physical and sexual assaults of Dalit women.
“crimes against Dalit women are often not properly registered or investigated, conviction rates are slow and there is a large backlog of cases. Police are also known to collude with the perpetrators belonging to dominant castes in covering up crimes by not registering and investigating offences carried out against Dalit women.” Said a report by Amnesty International.
- Patriarchal system:
The patriarchal system of India has always put men in positions of power and women as subordinates. In a patriarchal system, women are considered to be liabilities and there is preference for a male child. Women do not have any property rights even though they are legally recognized and have rights when it comes to owning property. This patriarchal system gives rise to many stereotypes and prejudices not to mentions evil practices like, female infanticide, honour killings and enslavement and selling of women and young girls (mainly sexual purpose). These have also given rise to inequality in terms of pay, education and career opportunities.
Besides these factors’ traditions play a massive role in shaping these problems and evils, inclusive of child marriages. Sati is not practised anymore but the idea behind it still lives that is a widow cannot be fathomed to marry again and if she does, she is looked down upon but on the other hand some women get married just for the sake of security and not to be seen as “available” or “unprotected”. The same goes for divorcees.
Women are disrespected to such a limit that even abuses, irrespective of language, are female oriented. These are aimed to hurt the person (mostly men) by insulting their female relatives. However successful the woman might become in life but her intelligence and achievements will never be visible to the male-chauvinistic and misogynistic society; only her body will be seen.
Am I fortunate to be an Indian woman? An Indian, yes but a woman, not so much.
Indic Feminism 