Each and everyone of us is a perpetrator of gender discrimination. I, like everyone else was blinded by misogyny and patriarchy inherent in our society. I'm appalled by the systemic discrimination our society accommodates when finally the dense fog has lifted over my eyes. We have been victims of desensitization and aloofness about gender discrimination.
Lets understand this by some examples with some News headlines,
Gurgaon Police had ordered not to employ women after 8 pm, if they do, then they need to give security.
Engineering college has made it mandatory for girl students to wear decent dresses
Haryana MLA says revealing dresses and pub culture are responsible for rise in crimes against women
Sena storms into pubs hits women, alleges cultural drain
Shoot daughter if she elopes- UP top cops advice
Youth attacks a minor girl with acid for rejecting him
Wife goes to court for alleged violence in marriage
IIT graduate expects gift(dowry) of one crore
How many of you think all of them or at least one of them is right news?
Did any of the news irk you?
As a matter of fact all the news presented here is covering sexism in society to varying extents. If you think at least one of the above news is legitimate, you are inherently a perpetrator of sexism. If we look at the general statistics,
- The Adult sex ratio since independence to 2001 has dropped to 933/1000 and has marginally increased to 940/1000 in 2011.
- Child sex ratio is even worse which has been dropping continuously and is lowest since independence at 914/1000 in 2011.
- Only 3% of women are employed in higher managerial jobs.
- 20% technical and non technical jobs with 25% share in income.
- 10-12% parliament representation.
All of the above are just few illustrations of permeating discrimination against women in society.Now a lot of people might ask what is the harm in Gurgaon making a law for protection of women from predators? to answer that question, we need to first answer certain implicit questions like, where did these predators come from? Why do we have a higher rape aggregate in India? Is stopping companies from employing women after 8 pm the right way to stop crimes against women? Who is responsible for rise of crimes against women? Is it rapid westernization or the culture of mini skirts or simply the perpetrators of these crimes against women? Who is really contributing to the rise in crime against women?
let us first analyse some structural problems in our society.
Protectionism Vs Empowerment
Quite often in Indian context, people see no difference between both. Government of India and its laws like Dowry prohibition Act(1961), Protection of women from domestic violence act(2005), The Muslim women Protection of Rights on Dowry Act 1986, termination of pregnancy act 1976 and a lot more focus mainly about protection than empowerment. If we ask an average father what he would do to keep their daughter safe...you might hear a few of the following responses.a) Stop the daughter from going out late night
b) Make her learn self defense
c) Raise voice against government for its inability to provide security
Some of these responses are more common than the other. Both, the responses a and c are protectionist whereas option b is empowering. If we see the Gurgaon's case, gives the same impression. Instead of making society conscious about their inherent gender bias, they chose to degenerate status of woman further, making them a commodity which needs protection than empowerment!
In a patriarchal society like India, everyone who takes lead role in a family from fathers, brothers, husbands to the government, everyone prefers protectionism as opposed to empowerment, consciously or sub-consciously to meet their ends(although male lead role itself is a form of discrimination, we will get to that later!)while giving their boy child every possible opportunity to develop and grow into an individual adult. A woman on the other hand is traded like a precious ornament which needs to be safeguarded, from one hand to other. What difference does a girl see between an ancient society and a modern one when very little has changed in perception of woman as property as opposed to an individual?
Further reading in coming blogs
Yours
Shiva :)
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