The social division based on gender or sex assumed less importance for
ages, even under-representation of women in public affairs was no issue at all.
The rise in the concept of feminism of late has only brought the gender
imbalance in public affairs into focus all over the world. The performers in
the stage of woman’s or girl child’s rights have begun to receive recognition
from the world organisations only in the seventies in full intensity; a recent
such prominent example of according recognition to such activities is the award
of 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. Though the terms ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ are very often
used interchangeably in everyday parlance, yet it is crucial to understand
their distinctions to properly appreciate gender and sex related issues and
their impacts on present day society. The term gender simply highlights social
and cultural differences between males and females, but not differences in
biology, whereas the term sex only implies biological distinctions. Gender
usually represents stereotypes in feminine and masculine behaviour, so it
assumes a well-compartmentalised pattern like Shakespearean characters. The
society since time immemorial has assigned specific roles to a male and female,
though education is trying to break this trend recently, for example kitchen is
no longer the exclusive domain of a woman. The quest for gender equality has
tried to assert that sexual differences could not be kept confined within any
barriers, leave alone social or political, but the ground reality is otherwise! As per UNDP Report 2002, despite contributing
66% of working hours worldwide, women earn only around 10% of the world’s
earning and own only 1% of world’s property. Same is the case in India, in
spite of the fact that women contribute more than 50% of working hours, but
their representation is not more than 10% in service taking together both the
private and public sectors. In view of this existing social scenario in the
world, it is difficult to believe that the chasm in terms of the opening of doorway
to benefits between women and men could ever be bridged.
Though the feminist aspirations have found their expressions since time immemorial, only in 1840s the women’s suffrage movement could emerge and in 1850s feminist ideology reached wider audience. Until the 1832 Reform Act, the women were not allowed to vote in Great Britain. By early 20th century, the female suffrage was accepted in principle in most of the western countries. Then there was a lull for many years due to the First and the Second World Wars and also in subsequent years till 1960, when once again the demand for women’s rights became more radical and acquired new dimension. In different countries the role of feminist movement and ideologies vary, but the common goal of all these movements is to reduce gender or sexual inequality and to put a check on the growing strength of male power due to patriarchal supremacy. Hidden radicalism can be witnessed in recent feminist movement; the original trend of a liberal approach to women’s problems no longer carries any weight now, which only tried to assert economic rights of the women. The radical thinkers try to endorse the view that cleavage in the society between men and women for ages is only due to patriarchy, therefore, they advocate sexual revolution to break this tenor to introduce sweeping changes in personal, domestic and family life. In India thinkers like Raja Rammohan Roy, Keshab Chandra Sen, Vidyasagar, MaharshiDayanandaSaraswati etc. belonged to this radical group, who campaigned against widow immolation or ‘Sati Pratha’ and widow remarriage, though the Brahma Samaj of which Keshab Chandra Sen was one member, later withdrew this agenda from their movement because of public outrage, but the movement once started continued to gather momentum with time. But first such credit should go to Job Charnock, the Englishman, who laid the foundation stone of Calcutta, when he rescued a young widow from funeral pyre and married her amid strong protests from the natives and his own men. Similarly, in the early 19th century, a man like Premchand, a great Hindi writer, displayed immense courage against the then conservative Indian society and married a widow. His entire set of writings is nothing but a crusade against the rule of patriarchy and discrimination against women.
The Indian society was highly backward and still is in terms of granting equal rights to women; though some of us make tall talks from time to time, bride burning, female foeticide and rape are still the evils of Indian society. Laws are there to tackle these issues, but it is very poor in terms of their implementation. The women’s rights movement appeared to have gathered actual momentum only in the late 1970s or early 80s. The women who pioneered this movement either belonged to the left or liberal backgrounds of middle or upper strata of society, who had access to English education. Once started, there was a mushroom growth of such organisations in every town and city, though little or no such organisation exists in rural areas, where around 80% of women live. These organisations emphasise on organising street protests from time to time and provide support services and counselling. Women belonging to lower middle and lower strata of society very often approach these societies for help, when faced with crisis situations like subjection to torture by their in-laws. The term feminism is used to identify such movement, but many people detest using this term, because of its approximation to mildness in its character. Women’s supportive role in domestic and social relationships was strongly protested by these organisations. They wanted to break the conservative character of the Indian society, though some of them pronounced that Indian society was traditionally backward. The later definition was definitely the effect of English education, as these people either knew nothing or little about the past history of India, which always advocated equality of women, women’s supportive role and submissiveness to man’s whims came later only in the middle ages, when India was at first subjected to foreign domination.
Be that as it may, these groups, though numerically small, invariably acted as pressure groups to force the government to respond. The addition of Section 85 BNS (erstwhile 498A in IPC) is the outcome of such pressure tactics. Even the government was forced to include women’s claims in government sponsored developmental schemes and sociological programmes. In order to quickly tackle the cases related to domestic violence and other atrocities on women, women cells were opened in many police stations across the country. Even many Non-Government Organisations came into existence mainly to deal with women’s issues under the government’s sponsorship. The government also established National Commission for Women at the centre and similar organisations in every state to look into the cases of violations of women’s rights. Particularly the NGOs are highly active these days to deal with women and girls’ related matters. But the women rights’ movement was basically targeting patriarchal power base of the society from broad perspective. Even these movements addressed problems related to minorities, dalits, tribals and landless labourers. During community conflicts these organisations took up the cases of human rights violations, particularly related to women. It was presumed that the barriers associated with class, culture and religions will gradually break-up on their own. To give the women’s rights movement a populist colour new cults of Kali and Shakti were also invented and liberally quoted everywhere to identify women as representatives of these mythical powers (Kali and Shakti). But in the process the pluralistic nature of the Indian society was relegated into background, people failed to realise there is marked difference in Western and Indian ways of looking at women’s stand. Perhaps looking at women’s related issues exclusively from India’s perspective would have long eased the problems. However, gradually this factor is being realised. Obscenity is one such issue against which the women’s organisations are campaigning in media. Though with western media there is no such inhibition, in India the objective of the movement is to protect the dignity of the women. Portrayal of women in subservient and derogatory roles and as object of entertainment is highly abhorred by these groups; however the social media is yet to be made fully conscious on this issue. This is a very popular issue with the social activists and political parties these days, which is really a very healthy sign for future grooming of the Indian society towards assertion of women’s rights, because we have to realise at first that we have our own moral and social values, which are highly different from the western approach.
One of the most important demands gaining prominence these days is the demand for a Uniform Civil Code. Since the beginning of women’s movement in India, the people associated with the movement have been constantly asking to encode one single secular code of marriage irrespective of religion. Family laws are different in India, which are called personal laws and are divided along religious affiliations irrespective of territorial jurisdictions. Despite the constitutional mandate that stressed the necessity for such a code, hardly had any attempt been made in this direction since independence. Opening the doors for Indian women to become fighter pilots, I don’t think will cut any ice; I feel, hardly will it break any gender barriers in male-dominated environment. The status of women still continues to plummet not only in India, but elsewhere also, such as in the USA or Pakistan, where women are being groomed as subordinates. Propounding newer theories for emancipation of women will be of no avail unless it is backed by a firm political will to implement the same.