(The principals of untouchability and “purity and pollution” dictate what Dalits are and are not allowed to do; where they are and are not allowed to live, go, or sit; who they can and cannot give water to, eat with, or marry; extending into the minutia of all aspects of daily life.)
Women seem to be the new self imposed Dalits.
To an extent the above statement may not fare well with a lot of high achieving women who do not form even a fraction of the Indian society.
For the other majority of our women population it hold true. Though seats have been reserved for women in our democratic set up, though women can now ask for their share in their parents property , though women have their own bank accounts, FD’s lockers, homes and cars and other forms of financial freedom, though women are involved in decision making processes still it is all superficial.
Scratch the shining layer of this new found empowerment of a few urban bred and working women even there you will find the age old effigy of ‘adarsh bhartiya nari’ breathing slowly and sleeping blissfully unaware that she can never be an equal to her male counterparts.
But who wants equality... Some of my friends will say that women are not equal to any one as they can’t be. They are different. Equality is between similar types. But as men and women are different they can’t be equal. I agree to this view and I also am not talking about equality here. There is something else that we are dealing with. We do have equal voting and financial rights but for some reason the great women hood is in a deep slumber unwilling to wake up.
Despite all the rights we have, we seldom exercise any.
Just take the example of the 2014 elections...what are our educated women thinking about, do they discuss about it, do they even think about it? None of the dozen women friends I have, seem to be bothered about it and that disturbs me.
If the educated and so called, empowered women are indifferent towards their participation in the society are not we in a state of deep unconsciousness? Are we not in slumber? Are we not just happy with our six monthly sale and daily mundane activities of life?
If we are not thinking and taking charge and asking questions about governance, policies, safety, prices, education, infrastructure and many more key issues then are not we as good as in a slumber?
Until unless we do not participate in community we cannot make it work for us. God has given us a brain which we should be using for larger causes as we know that it might not affect us today but it will affect our children and thus us few decades down the line.
We have to start from today and I am willing to take initiative for the same. But as they say that thousands of droplets make a wave and millions of droplets make an ocean. So my friends I am willing to be the first drop and take this discussion forward to may be a few hundreds connected to my networks but eventually all of us have to put our thinking caps on and start to discuss, think and act on the issues faced by the country today.
The objective of this initiation is to enhance women participation in the development of the country. Let us start with “Thinking first, Sharing and then Action’, “Manasa, Vaacha, Karmana’.
I urge all my friends to reach out to all their friends and start thinking and sharing about governance of our country.
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