I recently read an article in the Guardian titled "Why is India so bad for women?". The title I felt was not apt. By that the author had raised my expectations of providing the answers for the current, general precarious condition of women in Indian society. Rather as I read on, the article only gave examples of various forms of abuse and curtailment of women rights in India and also highlighted the recent molestation issue in Guwahati. For instance the article said,"45% of Indian girls are married before the age of 18". But nowhere did it seem to go into the why and how of this state being reached. At best the article only scratched the surface of an issue, which probably is more important for development of any society in the world- the issue of women rights and empowerment. As the article only showcased the problems and poor conditions of women in different parts of the country I guess a more appropriate title for it would have probably been, "SEE why India is bad for women".
Anyway, so the good thing was that the article really got me into thinking the "why" of it. I saw a lot of people sharing the article in their social networks and began wondering as to whether that would really help. What was really the root cause of these issues? Are all /most Indian men perverts? Would just better enforcement by the police help? Would just making modern, stricter laws make a difference?
If only we really understood the problem would we be in a better position to solve and deal with it. So after a lot of reading and thought, I came up with the following conclusion.
The truth is that, in most parts of India the interaction between males and females is no longer healthy. India, like Justice Katju rightly says, is passing through a transitional period in our history - a transition from feudal, agricultural society to modern industrial society. Prevailing Victorian sexual repression, left over from the British era, have led to creation of a society where the women are sequestered from men .
This is a society embedded with cultural taboos which have persisted throughout our transition to a modern industrial age. Taboos which have prevented natural interaction to occur across the genders. Even to this day expressions and feelings of love between a boy and girl are termed as an "affair" (a word with negative connotations) and are said to be in need of being tamed to adhere to socially accepted rules, values, and practices. Sexual urges have to be subordinated to social norms. Today's youngsters face an ever-widening gap between the age at which they are physically ready to have sexual intercourse and the age at which it is culturally acceptable for them to do so. They in fact are often sandwiched between a near-obsessive preoccupation with sex in the media* and a veritable wall of silence from other sources of information on the subject.
Add to this over-exposure to more open western societies and a dwindling sex ratio. Tension has crept in between the sexes as a result. Tension that has brings unnatural interactions to occur in such isolation between males and females. This manifests in various forms sexual harassment. Such acts can not be justified but are a logical consequence of the barrier that exists between the males and the relatively diminishing female population in India. Fundamental bio-psychic drives of sex force the males to violate civility and to harass women in every possible way. Rape is the extreme case of this harassment. From young to old no one is spared. And the harassers mostly get off scot-free.
Yes, India has become unfair to women. And the only way to change is through a cultural and societal change, which can happen only by improving the interaction between males and females. The more the separation and isolation, the more abnormal will people become in approaching each other. Healthier interaction between the sexes will help revert the reverbations of older social norms that have become ossified in our culture. Norms that have been segregating populations on the basis of gender.
The other important thing that needs to be done is to increase the female population and bring it closer to the male population. A very disturbing article by Amartya Sen tells the ghastly tale of how India has lost millions of its women owing to female foeticide. The article also points towards the state of Kerela for having the panacea for not just our receding sex ratio but also for education and development of the state.
The state of Kerala, I quote Mr. Sen, "does not have a deficit of women—its ratio of women to men of more than 1.03 is closer to that of Europe (1.05) than those of China, West Asia, and India as a whole (0.94)......women are generally able to find "gainful employment" ....What is exceptional is Kerala's remarkably high literacy rate; not only is it much higher than elsewhere in India, it is also substantially higher than in China, especially for women."
"Kerala's experience of state-funded expansion of basic education, which has been consolidated by left-wing state governments in recent decades, began, in fact, nearly two centuries ago, led by the rulers of the kingdoms of Travancore and Cochin....Moreover, in parts of Kerala, property is usually inherited through the family's female line. These factors, as well as the generally high level of communal medicine, help to explain why women in Kerala do not suffer disadvantages in obtaining the means for survival"
*(Exhbit A : Bollywood is offering increasingly regular doses of skin flicks, Exhibit B: India's largest circulating newspapers are obsessed with sleaze instead of news)
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