It might come as a surprise for many, but I , being a woman, do see the idea of introducing a Womens' Bill as being preposterously ridiculous. This is because I am a woman and not in spite of. Any proponent who argues that the Bill seeks to bring about empowerment of women in the country is only kidding himself. The Bill shall make women dependent on its crutches and turn them handicapped for ever. True empowerment will happen when the nation shall willingly give deserving women their due without attributing their success to reservations and excuses. Merely incorporating more number of women in the Parliament does not translate to the uplifting of the status of women. Which is why no woman sang or cheered when Ms Pratibha Patil became the first woman President of the nation. Moreover the Bill might just became a weapon of installing puppets controlled by powerful males and shall further hinder the rising of the deserving females, since males can only stand a maximum number of women in positions of power. Having a Rabri Devi for a CM did not do much for the status of the women of Bihar. The Bill shall just remain a mere notion of women empowerment.
No self-respecting woman would like her rise to success being attributed to crutches the State wants to supply. She wants to be there on the basis of her merit and not her gender. She needs support from her family, especially from her father, her brothers, her husband, and from colleagues at the workplace. That is all she needs to help claim what is rightfully hers. If the State really wishes to help, it should provide incentives and facilities to help educate more girls, help create a safe environment for them to grow and prosper.
No self-respecting woman would like her rise to success being attributed to crutches the State wants to supply. She wants to be there on the basis of her merit and not her gender. She needs support from her family, especially from her father, her brothers, her husband, and from colleagues at the workplace. That is all she needs to help claim what is rightfully hers. If the State really wishes to help, it should provide incentives and facilities to help educate more girls, help create a safe environment for them to grow and prosper.
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ReplyDeleteI, totally and whole-heartedly, agree with you on this! If women are deserving enough, they shall definitely achieve what they wish to. Also, if they have attained a seat of power on their own, no one can command them or treat them as a "puppet-of-advantage" (which can be the case if they have been appointed as a favor thru the women's bill)
ReplyDeleteAnother point is such bills should be passed only when there is an absolute long-term requirement. The reason being, in future when they don't feel the need, it is very hard to roll-back such crucial and controversial decisions like reservations.
God! Put some sense in these people.
i would like to disagree to some extent. wt abt the reservation in state assemblies and local bodies. are we not aware that in villages some women are threatened and harassed if they wish to contest any sort of elections. just ponder on the plight of such females. you might be trying to show that women can achieve a lot by themselves but in our beloved country CAN THEY???
ReplyDelete@ Nits:kinda the point.reservation isnt gonna benefit women unless and until a safe and secure environment for them prevails
ReplyDeletedont think that this is the same as reservations in panchayats. ya, women do face mazaar issues when they try to stand in these small positions and reservations help a lot there, but the same simply doesn't hold true at positions as high as the legislative assembly or the parliament.
ReplyDeletenobody would try and harass a lady who has a 'chance' of becoming an mp. ever heard of mayawati feeling threatened by the parochial society of ours :P. notice the word chance. its a chance that she has. if she doesn't prove herself worthy of being there or cant convince voters, i dont think that she deserves to be there then. if the ladies say that they are as good as men, let them prove it. they can't justify their sitting at home with their babas and chulas and still becoming an mp. they need to earn it.
one more thing this is a lil different from caste based reservations. not that i am a proponent for them, however i think women reservations in the parliament are dumber still. the basic premise for obc/sc/st reservations is that they are disadvantaged ppl and need help in getting access to higher education. that done once, they can hope to learn further and help in their community building.
but for women reservations... what do u do with a leader that they ppl might not have had in mind as their first preference?
nevertheless i am pretty sure that this bill will go thru our dumb assemblies
As far as reservation in the education institutes is concerned, elite or otherwise, I agree whole-heartedly with you.
ReplyDeleteComing to legislative assemblies, I really think the reservation bill would help. Sure one might not be happy to witness a leader he never planned to elect but unless women get a chance to prove their mettle, his parochial mindset will bar him from rooting for the fairer sex, for all we know, he might be losing out there bigtime!
This bill is about providing that *chance*.
Nonetheless, having said that I am not completely assuaged, knowing very well the puppet women leaders (esp in the village panchayats) are often ruled by their husbands!! A certain Rabri Devi comes to my mind.
Had been thinking on these lines since quite sometime; felt glad to see someone echoing the same thoughts!
ReplyDeleteWomen reservation is fine to an extent in village Panchayats, esp. in those places where women are forbidden to venture out of their homes (yes, there still *are* such places in India).
But reservation in the Indian Parliament?? Everytime someone speaks about equalising the status of men and women through a reservation bill, I LOL at him because every such time, he emphasizes the fact that women can't be equal to men otherwise. As you said, true empowerment shall happen only on the day when women win their seats because of their merit, not gender!