It is said that 'women is treated as god' in the Indian culture. But these gods have witnessed 7% increase in crimes in our country. According to the survey of 2019 there is an average of 89 rape cases daily. Nearly 4,05,861 rapes are taking place in our country in a year. Reality is that women is considered as weak and are restricted. It’s high time to think about safety, freedom and respect to women as an individual.
In a highly patriarchal society like India it is a very difficult task to bring any change in the position of women in the society.
Many tasks are taken by the government to improve life of women. There is 50% reservation for women in parliament but still there is only 11% of women in Rajyasabha and only 14 percent in Loksabha. We cannot call women independent until there is a time when there are 50% of women in parliament without reservation.
In most of the Indian households women are treated like slaves. They are only considered as an abject to make man's life easier. They are not meant to live a free life or fight for their aim. There are some places they are restricted to go and only men are allowed to go. There are even things that men could do which is considered as a taboo for women. Religions are one of the main factors that restrict freedom of women. All religions consider women as slaves or servants of man. All these believe are very deep and strong in our society and it will take a long time to overcome this.
Even though our country and the constitution provides rights to women same as that given to men, they are often denied to women. They face restrictions even in basic rights like choosing a religion and marrying a man of their choice, to get dressed as they like, to choose their dream job, or to travel alone at anytime especially night time. These are considered as men's rights.
These thoughts arise from a fake line of thought which are sown inside them at a very young age. This discrimination can be seen everywhere. Even in televisions and social medias. Girls who have their own dreams and decision are ill-treated and insulted in social medias. The main stream Indian movies in bollywood and other local language movies contain insulting and sexist dialogues.
Also there are double meaning songs and dialogues and a male character who dominates and restricts the female characters in the filim. All these could result in bringing a dominated mind set among men and a inferior mind set in women. Also there are movies that glorify domestic violence and rape culture against women. There are religions which restricts women wearing dress of their own choice and restricting women from going some places or pilgrim centres.
The sad part is that majority of women are supporting these restrictions and they believes that they shouldn't do these things. A main example for this can be seen in Sabarimala issue that took place in Kerala. Even the menstrual cycle is treated as a taboo in India. Other than these women face many other problems like honor killing witch craft related murders and female infanticide and sex selective abortion, dowry, child marriage and forced brothel.
Government has taken many measures against violence against women. Many states have made death penalty a punishment for sexually abusing child of age less than 12 years. They have established emergency response support system. This system provides a pan India, single internationally recognized number based system for all emergencies. Using technology for smart policing, MHA (Ministry Of Home Affairs) had also launched national database on sexual offenders (NDSO) on 20th September 2020 to facilitate investigation and tracking of sexual offenders all over the country. Also there is a One Stop Centre Scheme (OSC) which provides integrated services such as medical aid police assistance legal counselling court case management and psycho-social counselling and temporary sheltering for women who had been victims of violence.
Even though government has launched many plans condition of women are not improving in our country, for this there should be awareness classes on gender equality and empowerment of women. Everyone must be taught of feminism and the importance of it in the development of our country. There are many examples how educated women could contribute to the society. Let’s teach new generation about these contributions and every work can be done by both man and women and all the household work load is not on the women's shoulder.
Change should begin from one's home. One should be taught that women are also independent individuals who have their own views in everything. Women should be also taught about self respect. The change can be brought only when men become aware of these things and start to support women for their upliftment. Education can bring about so many changes in our society.
