Women empowerment
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 29, 2009 -

Empowering women has been just that, a slogan trumpeted from time to time by neo-liberals and politicians of all hues and colour and the fact why this has remained just a slogan can be gauged from the abysmally low representatives of women in the decision making process.

India is amongst the few countries in the world to have produced political personalities like Indira Gandhi but just as a swallow does not make a Summer, an Indira Gandhi cannot be the true barometer of the status of women in public life in India.

At present we have Sonia Gandhi, Shiela Dixit, Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati and Jayalalitha but their presence and clout in the decision making process should not blind us to the fact that even today, women continue to suffer the biases of a deeply prejudiced patriarchal society.

The decision of the Union Cabinet to reserve 50 percent of the Panchayat seats, in all three tiers, is a recognition of the disadvantaged position of the fairer sex in public life and if implemented in its true spirit, it can have some positive impact on the overall status of women.

Addressing the grass root, seems to be the policy of the UPA Government and this is a reflection that the Government has at least got one point in the correct perspectives.

However, the very fact that the Government has deemed it fit to reserve 50 percent for women raises questions of why it is needed in the first place. If women have been equal to men in every aspect, the need for such a reservation would not have arisen at all, in the first place.

As much as the decision of the Union Cabinet is welcome, it is also a sad commentary on the status of women in society.

It should also be kept in mind, that no amount of reservation or degree of reservation for women will work, until and unless some basic issues are first addressed to.

Education is the pass word to come out of a life of dregs and poverty. It also frees one from exploitation and empowers the educated ones to raise their voice and assert themselves. This is what the women of India need. Health of women and access to health care is another issue that has to be tackled on a priority basis.

How many women die during child birth ? Why is that the girl child is more prone to suffer from malnourishment ?

These are issues which have to be addressed to by social activists and liberation for women today does not mean the bar burning type, but allowing them to enjoy the opportunities that are available to everyone.

Any reservation policy can best be an initiative to even out the playing field, so that the disadvantaged may be given the opportunity to catch up with the others. It can never be the end in itself.

From the Panchayat level, women must be given the opportunity to climb their way up the ladder of the decision making process. For far too long women have been treated as door mats, that something desperately needs to be done to better their lot and this can come only when society shed its hypocrisy and double standard.

There can be no civilisation worth talking about, if one half of its population are an exploited lot.