The image is for representative purpose only. The author doesn’t own rights to the material attached.
WOMAN! The very word is known to send pulses down many men. If you are a man and reading the word made your back straight and to sit in awe, don’t be worried as you’re not at fault. Thanks to our rich culture, if there is one horrific tradition we follow from history, it’s the discrimination and objectification of the female gender. Though, studies of Rig Vedic life have enough evidences of parity among the people, it’s the evolution of humankind that paved way for the differences and disparities which we follow as a long lived tradition. Coming from a traditional Indian family, I have seen and heard many stories of how that particular gender was made to struggle throughout her lifetime by both the society and the dominant men. I strongly object to the terming of women as weaker sex, for she might be weak physically but no 100 men could equal her mental strength.
Women are victims to hell lot of misfortunes. They are subject to assaults – verbal and sexual, slavery, domestication, dowry, emotional blackmails,misogyny, and a lot more. Despite all these, they are known to walk across the mishaps with a broad smile. Studies say every 6 minutes, a woman is made victim to a sexual assault. Men, who were created to protect her, are seen preying on her. Be it father, brother, husband, friend, coworker; women aren’t safer at any hands these days and the crimes against them are on a rise disproportionately, day by day. The brutal killing of a techie in a railway station in Chennai last year; the murder of a techie in Pune last month; the cold-blooded killing of a 7 year old kid near Chennai last month; the cruel act on a pregnant woman down the south last month; are all the blatant examples of how unsafe the life has turned out to the gender who only thrive for an unbiased life with ensured safety.
When strict laws and harder rules to protect women in India are far from reality, we must not be deaf to the voices calling out to ensure safety. In a country where there isn’t a day without news of a crime against women, we must admit that we have not learnt enough from the Nirbhaya case, sadly. Objectification of women has its roots to the Ancient times, where women were being portrayed as properties of Kings and Noble men, a heritage which is unmistakably being followed to these days, and men just look forward to women as objects of pleasure.
Families fortify women’s dreams of stepping out to work, as they believe a working woman is a liability to the entire family. When in workplace, there is bias as they are regarded inefficient to carry out tasks, which so far were handled only by men. Among friends, women are labelled “Handle with care” instruments, who perhaps are to be protected from everything, everywhere. Among partners, women become subjects to the male superiority, who don’t get to say anything. All these imbalances in every instrument of society, are individually responsible for the state of women currently. For a gender who is capable of multitasking efficiently, handicapping her on the grounds of protection and safeguards is like caging a bird, fearing the sky.
The rising offences against women and the discrimination thrown at them, are an alarming caution to the society, as a Society is incomplete without women. Are we going to wait until every bold woman of the gender turns against the differences and stand up to the world, roaring their anger? Can the world sustain such an uprising, given the fact that we have all heard the power of female anger! It is high time that we addressed the prevailing concern at hand, not giving room to anymore violence. In a male chauvinistic world, it is really hard to change the minds of men who have been soaked with the concepts of inequality, for very long. Alternately, parents should start raising kids without any distinction and teaching them to treat both genders equally – for, that can make a generation healthy without these dramas. We, as a society are handed with the responsibility of seeing to it that the future generation at least, lives in a safe environment, far from the inequalities and with a blessed life, like the ones of the ancient world. The concept of existence of a difference between both the genders must be suppressed and the barriers be removed once and for all. That is when the concept of Gender parity would emerge, else men would continue to feel superior and women made to feel inferior. In fact, Independence to India was possible only when the ruling British decided to give freedom, and not because of the freedom movements alone. Likewise, Gender parity is possible only when the dominant contemporaries give way to the female counterparts, else calling out for equality by women alone will hardly see any impact on the scenario. Hence, Instead of celebrating Women’s Day this March 8, I’m calling out to my fellow beings to celebrate Women and Life, because to me, both are sound and intact.