Women’s Bill: Equally Unequal
Yesterday was International Women’s Day. A day when almost all communication across print, visual and social media screamed that Woman Power needed to be feted. That the female ego needed to be massaged. And that the second sex needed to feel good about themselves – at least this is what most retail brands also felt. Hence they all rushed in to offer huge discounts, happy buys and other feel-good thing-a-me.
Yesterday was also supposed to be a historic Monday in the making with the Women’s Reservation Bill being passed in Parliament. But what ensued was high drama, histrionics and (display of) horrible behaviour in the misnomer of House of Elders. Action in the Rajya Sabha was anything but what is deemed fit of elderly citizens. And in this case, elderly nominated citizens.
But it’s yesterday no more.
The day after, retail brands have gone back to doing their usual stuff — targeting Rahul, Deepak & Hari. And not women per se. The plethora of status updates across social media show no signs of nursing a hangover. “More woman power”, “HWD” and their ilk have remained Monday-only icons, I guess.
The day after, there was also unfinished business in Parliament. Deliberations were supposed to be carried forward from a Manic Monday. Decorum was supposed to be reinstated after yesterday’s shameful show by our Elders in the House as they harassed the Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari who, incidentally, also happens to be the country’s Vice-President. After numerous adjournments, the House finally decided to put itself in order. Literally.
As I write, the voices of (in)sanity in Parliament, cutting across party ranks – Arun Jaitley, Brinda Karat and Jayanti Natarajan – have, for once, agreed to agree. Almost disconcertingly, the trio, individually, have just finished espousing the cause of Nari-cracy, about why this democracy now needs a Mis(s) Mandalisation of politics.
The darkest hour is before the dawn, they say. For modern India, the darkest hour is here, with no promise of sunshine anywhere on the horizon. An hour of prolonged regressive gender politics that will, eventually, not do any thing for the cause of woman empowerment or emancipation. Remember Mandal.
Reservation of all sorts is dangerous, especially in a society like ours where it mostly ends up becoming an instrument of electoral politics. Even as the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has taken the cause of this Bill much like a personal (ego-tinted) agenda of sorts, it’s amusing to see sudden unity among our politicos, some agreeing to disagree (Mulayam, Lalu) while others doing the opposite.
Inclusive politics, fair gender representation, victory for womenfolk – these are some of the phrases that have been in circulation ad nauseum over the past few days. And I don’t agree with either. Call me a cynic who is missing the bigger picture. But I fail to fathom how reserving 33 per cent seats for women can ensure good, non-corrupt leadership that will deliver on promises made? Women, the world over, have proved to be astute politicians and kudos to them for that. But more often than not, women in power have also misused their positions to seek favours. And history is witness to that.
More importantly, what happens to merit, excellence, hard work? What is the guarantee that a (reserved) woman representative would be more deserving meritorious than her male counterpart? What is the assurance that a candidate from a political dynasty won’t get preference over her non-politically networked woman competitor? Doesn’t that, in itself, qualify for double reservation?
For all our shouting from the rooftops that education has been an equaliser and has brought Bharat and India closer, the passage of this Bill has been an education in itself. It has shown yet again that our elected representatives don’t know how to conduct themselves in the public sphere.
Caught in a time warp, this Bill takes us back by a couple of years. It questions strides taken by women in various spheres. It almost belittles the achievements that so many women have managed and continue to do so in their day-to-day and not-so-ordinary lives.
And like all things Indian, this Bill has now assumed more than a political tinge. And sadly, that will be the colour in time to come.
June 27, 2011 at 21:58
Limiting the history of feminism or in other words women empowerment to the history of the modern feminist movement has always been criticized by many of us. Our socio-cultural structure has ignored woman’s opposition to patriarchy over the course of thousand of years. In fact, in our so called modern, orthodox and conservative Indian society, women empowerment is almost negligible as what we see even today that despite opposition the parliament has proposed a 33% reservation in seat for women in the state legislative assembly and parliament. The irony is that despite of so many efforts done by the law and NGO’s there still exists a huge disparity for the women in our society.
Moreover, my interaction with people and with the surroundings, gave me a feeling that the problem need to be given a microscopic view from the grass root level. What I felt that in our social strata we actually fails to imbibe the concept of gender equality and empowerment from the very beginning in the minds of our children’s. And even the word empower and equality gets bandied about so much that one should be forgiven for over looking what actually they mean; to imbue some with power, to instill in the individual a sense of equality.
As a matter of fact, here, it would be not only the responsibility of the male to imbue a sense of equality. But, indeed women as a part of this civilized society should refrain begging in the name of equality and empowerment by taking simpler means like 33 % reservation which are altogether a political gimmick to secure the vote banks of some rascals. But, each one of them should come up and display the real essence of motherhood .