- Few days after assuming the Chief Minister’s Office in Uttarakhand, the newly minted incumbent has landed himself in a soup, wittingly or unwittingly, by stating that he was shocked at women wearing ripped jeans. His controversial statement has ripped apart the social media platform with many women have taken up the cudgel alongside few noted personalities also lending weight for uncalled-for utterances from the Chief Minister. As the controversial statement elicited widespread condemnation for being misogynistic and narrow-minded medieval mindset coming from an elected representative who happens to be the Chief Minister of a state as well.
PC: Erin
- It is highly irrelevant to understand in what context those words were mentioned and on what occasion but the message conveyed loud and clear is that girl’s and women’s sartorial preferences have become a subject of the debate rather than other pressing issues that deserve more attention from the administration. When women empowerment, gender equality, parity in pay and perks, impartial treatment, generating job opportunities on an equal keel with the male counterparts, emphasizing education, quality health, provisioning of security, delivering justice for the aggrieved should have generated attention, the Chief Minister sticking to ill-informed terrain on what women should wear shows poor judgment belittling the high office.
- It is disconcerting to note that when so much could be accomplished in uplifting the might of the women by provisioning every conceivable comfort, anachronistic thought processes seeps into our daily lives seriously questioning the rationale behind such inane statements. It only goes to show that how society continues to remain patriarchal even though the world around us takes giant strides in empowering women from millenniums of suppression. Reminiscing extreme hardships, deprivations, subjugation, objectification, and exploitation for sexual gratification have rendered the women vulnerable who are still fighting to gain acceptance as equals even now.
PC: Nina Kler
- Urban women as compared to rural fraternity might be relatively well-off fending for themselves as male bastion grudgingly makes way for equitable participation. Unfortunately, rural women still live to fight seeking basic amenities like taking care of the households as well as bringing up progenies in the absence of opportunities to get educated, employed, and sustaining livelihood on their own. However, the ugly head of male machismo does flare up even in urban centers to reducing the women to fight for survival as well as demand attention when things go awry. Though progression is achieved on many fronts, there is still a long way to traverse for women to stand shoulder to shoulder with the menfolk.
- Therefore, it is advised our elected representatives concentrate their resources and wherewithal to address pressing issues like gender inequality rather than spend precious time debating about what is being worn by women. Leave that choice to women themselves who know what suits them best. In the meanwhile, make every effort to facilitate parity that empowers the other gender who have proved second to none when it comes to delivering the chosen endeavors.
