How important are the issues related to woman and
gender? Most of us would agree that they are extremely important, since they
form almost half of the population. Should we then give priority in dealing
with them? Again, most of us would agree to give it a top priority.
India has dedicated a ministry for Women and Child
Development with a vision, which states. “Empowered women living with dignity
and contributing as equal partners in development in an environment free from
violence and discrimination. And, well nurtured children with full
opportunities for growth and development in a safe and protective environment.”
Like all the government bodies this ministry is
also a bureaucratic machinery, where the wheels of progress turn very slowly.
In most of the countries, where it is allowed, a vibrant civil society acts as
the conscience keeper of the government. They push, protest and collaborate
with the government to ensure the wheels of progress are well oiled and turn at
a faster rate.
Various NGOs, international organisations, UN
sanctioned organisations and student movements collectively form the civil
society that the common woman looks up to. But there is something very disturbing
that is emerging in the recent America born and globally dispersed social
movements. These movements, mostly organised and controlled on social media,
threaten to undo all the good work the civil society has achieved so far.
In the name of social justice and gender
equality the social media movement are becoming funnier by the day. From movie
reviews to global surveys we have some outrageous things thrown at us as facts.
Then there is the trend of innovative hashtags. On the internet, there is no
dearth of content to get outraged. Activists get outraged over a film and pour
their anger masquerading as a review.
In their world there is no scope of artistic freedom of a director, or that of
a consenting adult woman who has portrayed the character. They just want to
outrage.
The civil society also gangs up against the
very women they claim to protect. We saw this happen in the recent events of
Supreme Court’s ruling on triple Talaq. Ms. Indu Agnihotri, director of “Centre
for Women’s Development Studies”, wrote in
Left leaning The Wire on how the BJP government’s interest in abolishing Triple
Talaq is more of a political tool than anything else. She is less bothered
about the inhuman practice of a unilateral, instant divorce but is casting
doubts at the intent of the government. One can assume that for women who
suffer such barbarity, it does not really matter who is assisting them.
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| How can illiterate women know what they want? Picture courtesy: Google |
The case of Flavia Agnes, a women’s right
worker and a founding director of Majlis (an NGO). She even submitted a “model
nikahnama” to the Supreme Court, which would apparently prevent the cases
of Triple Talaq. She believes that interfering in minority affairs is not a
good thing and a simple two page nikahnama can stop the problems Muslim women
face.
Recently the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the
charity arm of Thomson Reuters, carried out their annual poll on “world’s most dangerous megacities for women”.
A credible name like Thomson Reuters is expected to carry out a thorough job.
They chose 19 megacities (as listed by the UN). One would imagine that they
would have done some field work, identified the population and the sample size
and interviewed women. But all they did was call up 20 “experts” from these
cities and take their word for granted. You can read the methodology here. Here the
statistics do not matter because for some strange reason the 20 “experts” are
the oracles who know everything. The assumptions and beliefs of these experts
became data and the results were published. An actual survey/poll would have
given a similar result but publishing results based on mere conjecture is
taking a serious issue to ludicrous levels.
There are many other instances where one finds
that these so called feminist and gender activists are less concerned about the
actual issues and are more inclined to grab attention. Why else would these
activists indulge in opposing the very values they claim to fight for?
What we need today is social and financial
inclusion of women in our society. We may march down the Rajpath, holding
candles, but real women empowerment will not happen unless they are financially
independent and at least have access to formal banking. What we need today are
organisations that can help women in rural areas to ensure institutional child
delivery and immunisation. We need to ensure that all girls have access to
schools and proper sanitation facilities. We need people and organisations who
can do these dull, tiring and thankless jobs.
