] sekarreporter1: https://youtube.com/shorts/u7AWx2aB2tk?si=FX6ZAKyFm3mn06WO [08/03, 03:56] sekarreporter1: -: WOMAN ’ S MARATHON IN LAW :- By Daniel Mary, Advocate Women today face multitude of cultural, socio economic challenges
[07/03, 21:40] sekarreporter1: https://youtube.com/shorts/u7AWx2aB2tk?si=FX6ZAKyFm3mn06WO
[08/03, 03:56] sekarreporter1: -: WOMAN ’ S MARATHON IN LAW :-
By Daniel Mary, Advocate
Women today face multitude of cultural, socio economic challenges that impede her advancement in the society. Even tho’ Indian Constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, but the position of the women in our society continues to remain unequal. This awful status remains despite enacting plethora of laws to protect the battered women in our country to ensure their betterment, but due the heterogeneous composition and the vast difference that exist between urban (emancipated) women and the rural (docile), the carriage of justice to the deserving, oppressed women appears yet elusive and leaves much to be desired in correcting the imbalance that has remained embedded in our society for too long in the past.
Tho’ Indian women were said to have enjoyed an exalted status in society in the ancient days, this appears to have eroded during the following periods in history. Social inhibitions and discriminatory practices against women that had subsequently managed to creep in to take strangle hold have long remained embedded over the following periods, seem to continue unabashedly even in today’s supposedly enlightened and seemingly more civilized society.
Societal change is an inevitable phenomenon in every society with passing of times. The legislations enacted in the past and their effective implementation have acted as a necessary catalyst to whatever changes achieved so far in the society and in its socioeconomic trends while at the same time endeavouring to preserve the necessary balance between ones individual rights and their duties to the society at large and in particular towards the women.
Tho’ the constitution provided equality of both sexes, man and women, but biological and physical condition of women, the sense of subordination embedded in them due to long oppressions undergone over the generations and also considering the indispensable pivotal position the women occupy in the society, the constitution has acknowledged the special needs of the women and have provided the extra protection, favourable discrimination in favour of women that they are rightfully entitled to before the law.
Women are very much entitled to this protected treatment due to the reason that their physical structure and their performance of certain functions place them at a disadvantageous position in their struggle for subsistence in today’s society. Since women are indispensable and remain inseparably central to our society’s survival and to thriven, women’s well-being undeniably becomes an object of society’s interest in order to preserve and progress the strength and vigour of any society.
It is also due to her physical differences, the women have long been exploited and harassed not only by the physically better abled men but strangely and deplorably, they are even treated with scorn Women in our country today bore the brutal burden of having long been subjected to the negatives of entrenched cultural biases that perpetuate valuing of sons over daughters who are often considered as an economic burden to the families. Women are continuously faced with discriminatory family codes right from their birth, like the lack of education, financial dependency and cultural stigmas.
The society at large should realize that women are men’s counterpart, their indispensable companion in the journey of any civilization thro’ this wonderful world. Women and men are interdependent on each other and it is grossly inhuman to subject only the women to the shackles of so called cultural values, tradition, social norms, customs, rituals, habits, etc., and continue with oppressing her perpetually. It is however heartening to observe that despite the difficulties faced, quite a number of our Women have managed notable achievements in almost all fields of society such as education, arts and entertainment, politics, sports, literature, etc. Contrary to the common perception, large percentage of women in our country work. However, there are fewer women than men in the paid workforce, especially in the rural area. In urban areas, women are now well equipped to compete with fellow men on equal footing and are enjoying seemingly better status in the society.
Despite all the developments achieved in our society and legislations enacted over a the periods, much of the work remains to be done at the grass root level, with the participation of male community, for the elevation of women in especially the rural society.
While effective implementation of the laws would be prerequisite in propelling necessary, desired changes in our society, it has to be acknowledged that laws alone cannot bring about the much required change. The long embedded social attitudes, cultural practices, etc., cannot be expected to change or disappear overnight, but they need to be confronted with persistent efforts thro’ new measures such as imposing, enforcing stricter penalties for the range of crimes against women to make the laws protecting them to be more effective. This much needed efforts have to come from the Government and the many rights groups in a coordinated manner; While there are encouraging signs seen in the recent times such as introduction of fast-track courts in several sexual harassment cases in the capital, special courts now staffed and entirely run by women, all women police stations and the latest announcement made by our Finance Minister for the constitution of all women bank, but we still have a long way to go to ensure that the society benefits fully .
The pangs of our fast developing society that is attempting to free from its shackles, set patterns or practices are now seem to be exhibiting themselves in dastardly acts such as eve teasings, rapes, molestations of women folks who are seen increasingly braking away from the customary, conventional stereo type roles assigned to them over the years in the past by our patriarchal society. It would appear that the increasingly predatory sexual culture resulting in violent sexual harassment /aggression against women in recent times is related to the male resentment of the erosion of the traditional subordination of women in our patriarchal society by the women’s taking up increasing roles in the work force, their enhanced mobility, their improving social and economical empowerment.
The laxness on the part of law enforcing agencies such as police while dealing with certain vile atrocities committed against women such as rape, etc., and the daring impunity of the rapists as they go usually scot-free mainly due to the feeling of helplessness in the rape victims that the legal processes are heavily stacked against them and also due to their wish to avoid social stigma associated with being seen as the raped or abused ones, have only contributed to the soaring increase in these type of incidents in recent times and it is a matter of grave concern to our society that these incidents continue to occur unabated even today.
The crimes against women such as rape, kidnapping and abduction, molestation, sexual harassment, eve teasing, torture, homicide for dowry and the trafficking of women, etc., also now require redefining in our laws to eradicate the vagueness of their definitions. Some of these crimes carry only a light penalty and is almost never enforced. In cases like eve-teasing which seem to be widely prevalent now, most of these incidents go unreported and in cases where they are reported, conviction rates are abysmally low, due to weak prosecution usually.
Especially in serious cases like rape, most of them go unreported mostly because of the stigma and the shame it could bring to the victims and their families. The ones who brave the stigma and report such cases, have to face dehumanizing experience during the subsequent legal process due to lack of specialized training for the police, doctors and other law enforcing and justice delivery systems in our country. It is also deplorable that when it comes to sexual violence against women, the attitude of blaming the victim appears to be pervasive even in political and religious circles. It is due to this mindset that even tho’ we have laws on books that address most of these issues, even if not adequately in its present form, these despicable incidents continue to flourish in almost all parts of our country unchecked.
The recent government initiatives, in the aftermath of the deplorable act that had happened in our capital which has made the entire nation hang it’s head in ultimate shame, to address the much required reforms of the country’s judicial system, even tho’ it might appear prima facie to be a knee-jerk reaction, is a very welcome move in the progressive direction in improving the safety and security of our women in the society.
While it is imperative for every women of our country to equip herself with the knowledge (literacy), special skills to shoulder additional responsibility and the perseverance, strong will to stand up for herself and fellow women, against perpetrators of any wrong doing in the society, will go a long way in providing the much needed impetus to our society and will ensure the rightful place the women deserve in it.
In our fast developing society in its search for constant improvement to its constituents, there will undeniably be numerous impediments especially when it is poised for a major leap in the days to come with the whole world now looking towards us with high hopes and therefore continuing to hold the women hampered in their ability to participate in propelling our economy and hence the society, will not auger well for us and will prove to be detrimental to our country’s modernisation.
May we therefore say in conclusion that it is time for all of us, both men and women, in our society to realize what is at stake for us and embark upon proper course corrections NOW so that our aim of achieving a fully developed, healthy and happy society does not remain a pipe dream but translate into a reality in not too distant future.
JAI HIND!
