- Let’s not beat around the bush and pronounce that Indian society continues to be patriarchal, misogynistic, and male chauvinism ruling the roost. All talks of gender parity, equality, unbiased treatment, a level playing field, and respect for women have often kept appearing like a misnomer rather than something substantial to gloat about proudly. Despite successive governments at both the center and the states undertaking concerted efforts to usher in much-needed parity between men and women, the latter continuing to be subjected to cruelty, sexual harassment, and disparity are facts that cannot be simply brushed under the carpet. The moot point to ponder over here is why society hasn’t learnt any lessons despite women showing they are second to none.
PC: Daily Pioneer
- Moreover, why does Indian society expect women to make all the compromises when gender parity is being bandied about everywhere? Simply because our thought processes carried forward over the millennia haven’t changed expectedly. It’s a vicious circle when a bride eventually becomes a mother/mother-in-law but continues to toe the line of the male-dominated societal setup, failing to break the norm for good. Most disturbingly/disgustedly, the dowry menace plagues the Indian society even as we aspire to be counted among the most advanced nations soon. Why, at all parents tell daughters to adjust to dowry demands or cruelty in the first place? A progressive society must make decisive moves to embrace desired changes wholeheartedly.
PC: News9live
- Sadly, three cases last week burst the bubble, yet again, for many who assumed India was getting ahead of its most regressive practice, dowry. How wrong were they! The SC will hear, suo moto, Twisha Sharma’s case, the young woman, whose death in MP is less marked by grief, and more by murky allegations and slander exchanged between Twisha’s marital and parental families. The other two cases, in UP and MP again, and the approx 16 daily dowry deaths in India speak just one truth. That women’s security, or empowerment, is not a sum of parts, which are markers of progress or modernity. Tall claims, exhortations, measures, bills, acts, and awareness have not deterred menfolk from indulging in perpetrating dowry harassment on hapless women.
PC: LiveLaw
- Their education/professional achievements, financial security or prosperity, social profile, access to healthcare, awareness of rights, none of this helped in the face of dowry demands, harassment, micro-aggressions, mental and physical torture, and murder. Women risk all of this as part of the marriage pact between two families, tragically, even in love marriages. No role, perhaps, bears as much burden as the young bahu, trained and conditioned from childhood, dangerously, to adjust. It’s what endangers their lives. What are parents thinking when they turn away when a daughter communicates fear for her life? What about women’s safety when it is missing within the family? No deterrence, conviction, pendency, or acquittals in dowry cases means the menace thrives. Why can’t women who feel threatened walk out of a dangerous marital home? That’s a question for brides’ parents, cops, governments, and society at large.
