- As much as the civil society members wish to welcome gender parity, unbiased treatment, and a level playing field, the troublesome and irksome issue of patriarchy, misogyny, and anachronistic mindset continues to rule the roost everywhere, including in India. Inarguably, women’s progress has been stymied by successive governments helping ward off the age-old belief systems by encouraging them to participate in every field hitherto considered the sole bastion of men. As you are aware, women are even flying fighter jets of late in India when not so long ago, this was considered an area not suitable for them. Several glass ceilings and taboos lay shattered here. These are welcoming signs offering an insight into how society is finally veering around the topic.
PC: India Today
- However, the moot point to ponder over here is whether society has fully realized and evolved to grant parity to women. Of course, society always works at cross purposes with the proverbial male dominion rearing its ugly head now and then. Indisputably, progress has been patchy. Look at how in a terribly gender unequal society, U-turn ideas such as legalizing pre-birth sex determination are being bandied about. A data point showing this starkly is that the share outside the labour force due to care responsibilities is 53% for women and 1% for men. The ILO report highlighting this disparity also suggests how doubly cruel it is. Women not only carry a disproportionate burden on unpaid work but they are then punished with a lower status vis-à-vis men as breadwinners.
- So, the second indisputable case is that India must only march forward on gender equality. There is no room for any U-turns. Obviously, it is not women alone who are wounded by any agency or policy attempting such reverses. All that chains them also brutishly keeps the whole of society and economy from reaching its potential. Sometimes U-turn campaigns borrow the language of liberation and technological progress, and this disguise must be dismantled. A recent example is the Indian Medical Association president grabbing headlines in aid of legalizing prenatal sex determination tests. He contends that the PC-PNDT prohibitions should be pulled down because these have been a massive failure over 30 years. Really?
PC: Freepik
- Nonetheless, would anyone ask for legally sanctioning murder because penalties haven’t ended murders over the centuries? Offspring sex selection favouring the male offspring is a cruel indicator of the life of a female not being valued and even despised across societies. But it would be a wretched country that would leave societies to change this barbaric practice at their own leisure. Strict implementation of laws relating to diagnostic techniques for the determination of the sex of the foetus is the more just, rational, and productive path. India’s sex ratio at birth still only reflects lackadaisical implementation and zero room for further laxity. Yes, sexist taint still runs among us. The progress we have made, but more is yet to be accomplished. Hopefully soon.
