https://unsplash.com/s/photos/women-empowerment

From Meal Maker to Kingmaker, a tough fighter.

It's genuinely an irony if we will be discussing about women empowerment in the 21st century. Unfortunately, we will have to. In the cut throat global competition of the industrial world still numerous women are merely a two time meal maker in various families. It won't be wrong if I will say they are 'a child producing machine' in some conservative houses. No doubt they are climbing the everest and exploring the universe, yet they have a long distance ahead for creating a male-female equally dominant society that is the most safe, healthy and happy accommodation. Indeed, they have come so far and there fighting spirit is genuinely appreciable. Let's look out the various concerns that they are confronting.

Violence: A shameful act

The issue of domestic violence is not concerned on a social level on broad extent and we take it in a casual way just because it is mostly inside the four walls. As a result, the pain of suffering women remain hidden. It is shocking to know that one fifth of the world population is the home to this heinous crime that is Violence against Women. The most recent National Family Health Survey found that in India 34% of women between the age of 15 to 49 have experienced violence at some point since they turned 15 and that 37% of married women have experience violence. During the lockdown, domestic violence and intimate partner violence cases have been doubled as reported by the National Commission for Women (NCW). What can be the reason behind this circumstances ? The reason is promoting wrong teachings among our children. We teach our boys that it is okay to be violent and in case of girls we teach them to be tolerant. This is our conservative mindset. Maybe we do not teach them directly but we promote this teaching indirectly by not reacting on such sort of things. This has to be changed.

Dowry System: A Curse

A pseudo system that is taking life of a single woman every hour in India. This greedy mindset is hidden by saying this as a voluntary gifts to express happiness and love. This report by the NCRB shows the annual figures of dowry deaths rising upwards to 7000. No doubt, the one who is asking for dowry is culprit but equally the one who is offering dowry is also a culprit. Such dowry related deaths are mostly seen to a woman at marriage age or her educational level. This situation can be changed by parents by doing one thing. If the money that parents save for the marriage of there daughters is invested on her the educational career then the daughters will be so liable and independent that they will be able to take responsibility of all the spendings of her marriage and even of her life. And the most important is that they will make there parents and nation feel proud.

Let them see the world

The worst level of human mentality is not allowing a child to see the world just because she is a female. On one side we are dreaming for an equal society and on the other we are discriminating with an innocent life. However, we are trying to stop this but yet situation is dismal. The government has taken many initiatives to prohibit this incidents. Preconception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC/PNDT) Act, 1994 prohibits the use of prenatal technologies to determine the sex of a foetus and several states have launched vigilance cells to crub incidences of female foeticide. There is no legislation directly addressing honour killing and currently, the crime is dealt with under the Indian Penal Code or the Criminal Procedure Code.

Women empowerment

While glancing through thousands of years of human history, we will find woman playing a vital role in every family even in livelihood earning. However, physically they are not as fit as a man but this physical inequality by nature could not force them to step back. Unfortunately, the irrational beliefs and rules of society have suppressed them. It is time to empower them. We all envision our India as a developed nation. But this cannot be achieved by leaving the half population suppressed. For the development of our nation, the contribution of women are equally important. Every Indian women should become Rani Laxmibai, Kalpana Chawla, P.V. Sindhu, etc. Their participation should be increased in every sector including sports, government, administration, judiciary, business,etc. Hopefully, the reservation of 33% of seats in India's local government increased women's political participation and has led to more gender friendly governance. However, in the year 2020, India ranked 142 among 193 countries in terms of the percentage of women in Parliament. A total of 78 women MPs were elected in 2019, i.e.14.4%. The number of women voters had risen from 47% (2014) to about 48% (2019) while women MPs in the 16th Lok Sabha stand at 11.2% after more than 70 years of independence.

If woman in a family is not happy then the whole family is unhappy. They are the integral part of our society and life. Suppressing women will lead annihilation and empowerment of women will lead development.

.   .   .

Discus