A Journey from Home to House

A JOURNEY FROM HOME TO HOUSE

8th March, 2010. WOMEN’S DAY hitting a century, the day was very special for women as it was for sachin tendullker hitting double century in one day cricket match. For India, International Women’s Day will be historic in fact the whole week would be historic. If the BILL becomes law, it will set in train one of the largest exercises in female empowerment anywhere in the world, and with the High Court Granting Permanent Commission to Women in Armed Forces was a real excitement.

But, how important was the International Women’s Day for the ordinary Woman for the ordinary woman- at work, at home, on city streets and in the village? Is it just another symbolic attempt to mark a feelgood mantra?

Many say there is reason enough to be cynical about it.
 There are still as many cases of rape as before.
 Domestic violence still foes largely unreported.
 Women continue to be tortured, burned or murdered for dowry.
 Women can’t reasonably expect to travel around most Indian cities alone at night.
 It remains hard to find accommodation if you are a single woman Or worse, a single mother.
 Gendercide, foeticide, infanticide and girls that survive are discriminated against(compared with sons)in food, health, education and choice of livelihood.

“Really, show me one woman who is interested in celebrating Women’s Day”, says a 26 year’s old media planner. “This hoopla around it is as useful s the parade on Republic or Independence Day,” she adds.

The flipside is the need to dedicate one day to a basic truth: women equal to men and should be treated accordingly. Showing sympathy or by giving empowerment will only show the picture, but will fail to change the story.
However, the Women’s Bill crossed one hurdle in the Rajya Sabha and will have to cross another in Lok Sabha. According to the Bill, One third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies reserved for women will be allotted by rotation, which means that once in every three elections a seat will be set aside for women and for the other two revert to a general seat. How in effect would that work? A woman who wins in a reserved seat won’t have the cushion of running against only women if she contests form the same seat in the next election. But she would of course be able to run for reelection so long as she is nominated by her party and is willing to contest on a mixed slate. Conversely, in one-third of the seats, incumbents, whether male are female, will have to sit out once in three elections. Is that such a bad thing? Not necessarily. But this will off course led to a political misbalance.

Well, the opposition party to the bill RJD & SP not only fights against the bill but also for the reservation of OBC and Muslim community in the Lok Sabha. With lalu saying ready to be Marshalled out over the Bill aggravated the situation.

Many critics denounce the creamy layer phenomenon, yet poor Dalits, tribals and backward caste are all for it. Obviously a creamy layer is less satisfactory than cream throughout. Yet a creamy layer greatly improves the access of ordinary Dalits and tribals to facilities and justice that in theory should be enjoyed by all, but in practice are enjoyed mainly by those within the most influential networks. Historically, the upper castes controlled their networks. Reservations have now given other groups entry points into the networks, and they love it.

As said by a political leader “Not everyone is a politician’s wife” but, a woman with a political background might have an edge. This was somewhat clear when Sonia Gandhi said to lalu “He(lalu Prasad) has seven daughters. I was telling him that within his family there are seven for the bill…”

Now, that was all the politics was about when we look at an practical approach in the patriarchal Indian society, making a place in the house will not serve its purpose of equality but would rather lead to partiality.

Here, I would like to recall the words of Renuka ray India’s first Minister for Relief and Rehabilitation. “....I should like to support this clause which has done away once and for all with reservation of seats for women, which we consider to be an impediment to our growth and an insult to our very intelligence and capacity”

I guess, we agree with her as woman has already made its place in various areas with her ability like Maharsh Karve starts SNDT university in pune, the first women’s university, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit becomes first woman to hold a Union Cabinet Post, Sarojini Naidu is forst woman governer of independent India, in charge of United Provinces, Indira Gandhi, Kiran Bedi, Mother Teresa, Bachendri Pal, Arundhati Roy, Pratibha patil, Meira Kumar, Chanda Kochar, Kiran majmudar Shaw and the list goes on.

I would also like to disagree with Nandita Das as she said “there is no level playing field for women in politics.” There is level playing field its just needs to be explored.

So, I end with seeing a positive empowerment in women not because of reservation bill but because of the positive wave that it has passed in the INDIA.

A flash back to what SARDAR PATEL said will be a ending note.

“Why do you think that you are a minority? If you are a strong, well-organized minority, why do you want to claim safeguards, why do you want to claim privileges? It was all right when there was a third: but that is all over. That dreams a mad dream and it should be forgotten altogether”