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QUEST FOR GENDER EQUALITY AND JUSTICEBY: Suchet | Category: Social Issues | Post Date: 2009-11-15
The International Women's Day celebrated on 8th March is a universal day for all women around the world. It endows them with a sense of honour, dignity and self respect for being the person that they are. This day marks a celebration of the economic, social, cultural and political achievements made by women over the years. But the zeal with which the day is glorified all over the world does really give this respect and honour to women in our society? Or simply celebrating women's day represents the construction of womanhood by the state. Western Sociologists and philosophers argue that commemorating such international events like women's day, mother's day have created and nurtured the male/female hierarchies, as one of the foundation beliefs on biological foundations of ‘natural' differences between the sexes and the idea of irreducible differences between masculine and feminine. -The origin of a child is a mother, a woman… She shows a man what loving, caring and sharing is all about...- said Sushmita Sen, India's first Miss Universe, in the final round of the contest. An answer which was greeted with tremendous applause and which probably, led her to win the crown. The idea connoted in her answer revealed that indeed a woman's essence lies in her innate ability to care, love and sacrifice for the other. She plays an all-enveloping character of a mother, daughter, wife and sister as a friend, nurturer, guide and partner from time to time. Emotional and vulnerable, sometimes erratic, sometimes serene, she displays a wonderful range of emotions from being patient to being extremely courageous in times of crisis. Does this label of being loving, calm serene has really helped women in our society to command respect or on the contrary the portrayal of such image has backfired her? Such issues of women empowerment, gender justice and discrimination have been highly debated by various scholars and academicians in various conferences and symposiums. The outcome primarily blames the patriarchal culture, women's submissiveness and fallacies in our legal system to provide justice to those who have been the key victims of gender violence in form of Dowry, Rape, Sexual Harassment, Prostitution and Domestic Violence. The National Crime Records Bureau in India in its latest report gives an alarming figure of 1, 85,312 incidents of crime against women reported in the year 2007. It shows an increase of 13% over the previous year. Despite the passing of Dowry Prohibition Act in 1961 the evil practice under the protective umbrella notion of ‘gift' continues to thrive even today with around more than 5,500 cases of dowry reported in a single year showing a marginal increase of 25%. The dehumanizing act of Rape, kidnapping Abduction and Torture have also increased both in our rural and urban social structure. The most astonishing is the fact that in more than 90 per cent of rape cases the victims were known to the offenders. The states of Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar account for the maximum number of women crimes in India. The life of women has become highly insecure in major metro cities of Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad with increase in number of cases of rape and abduction in these cities over past years. Apart from crime the malaise of gender discrimination has further devalued the esteem and morale of women in India. According to a recent report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) up to 50 million girls and women are missing from India's population as a result of systematic gender discrimination in India. In most countries in the world, there are approximately 105 female births for every 100 males. In India, there are less than 93 women for every 100 men in the population. The accepted reason for such a disparity is the practice of female infanticide in India, prompted by the existence of a dowry system which requires the family to pay out a great deal of money when a female child is married. For a poor family, the birth of a girl child can signal the beginning of financial ruin and extreme hardship. However this anti-female bias is by no means limited to poor families. Much of the discrimination is to do with cultural beliefs and social norms. These norms themselves must be challenged if this practice is to stop. Diagnostic teams with ultrasound scanners which detect the sex of a child advertise with catchlines such as spend 600 rupees now and save 50,000 rupees later. The various constitutional and legal provisions have been enacted to protect the Human Rights for women. The major women specific legislations like the Immoral Traffic ( Prevention) Act 1956, The Dowry Prohibition Act 1961, The Indecent Representation of women ( Prohibition) Act-1987, Domestic Violence Act, 2005, laws relating to rape ( Sec375 IPC) quest for protection for women against all types of violence and exploitation but reality is somewhat different. The sole purpose of these laws is much too be desired at the time of its implementation. Poverty, fear of social otracization from the community, job loss and upholding the legendary custom of being sat-savitri have prompted women in our society to be quiet, patient and tolerative. Accepting the patriarchal theory ‘anatomy is destiny' and ‘Man is the Master' they generally lend themselves to sustain and perpetuate this discrimination in any society. Therefore the onus of gender justice doesn't entire rest with our constitutional and legal machinery but the change of mindset of society to treat women with respect and honour is the need of an hour. Swami Vivekanand had rightly said -That country and that nation that do not respect women have never become great nor ever be in future- As it is also said that ‘Men of great quality respect women with equality' should be the mantra of our today's society which would assert much needed pride and honour to our women to rejoice and commemorate every International Women's Day. Article Source: http://www.saching.com About Author / Additional Info: Additional Articles: * My academic journey so far ... * The Mango Tree * Stigma and social discrimination of people with diseases * CHARACTERSTICS OF AN ORDINARY WOMAN. 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