It was a sad year end for women and for India. The battle
for life, and the eventual surrender to death of the victim of the heinous
assault in Delhi shook us all. It brought to the surface the anguish that had
largely till then remained silent within all of us who have been raised in a
culture of forbearance.
People wept, and screamed for change. People raged, and
argued about how that change will happen. People stormed the streets and then when there
was nothing more to be done, and they were emptied of all feeling, numbed and
slightly broken, people went home. They were tired and cynical, knowing that
even as the sun would rise and set as usual, much of the evil in the world
would continue as usual and women would continue to be vulnerable. There was
even the dread that orthodox elements would use this event to justify further
subjugation of women by inflicting strict curfew hours and dress codes upon
them as a means of “protection”.
In an earlier post, “Women are the Solution”, I had covered one facet of women’s
empowerment, focusing on the right to participate in decisions concerning
childbirth and contraception. These last
few weeks have given rise to fresh contemplation on the other pathways to
women’s empowerment.
Empowerment means – first and foremost - freedom from
violence and access to legal remedy for breaches and transgressions of that
right. But there are overt and covert barriers to accessing justice in an
overburdened system swamped with over twenty years of backlog yet to be
cleared. Those who seek justice are doomed to spend their days in dark dingy
corridors breathing in the dust of a hundred thousand petitions waiting to see
the light of day.
Surely there is another way? Not Vigilante Action, but Vigilance.
Vigilance doesn’t mean carrying arms. It means being aware of
and getting out of a mindset fed on stereotypes, orthodoxy and judgemental
attitudes. It means raising the girl child to have self-esteem and ambition, giving
the girl child the education and skills needed for self-sufficiency and
success. It also means teaching the male child to value and respect the
contributions of all, irrespective of gender and to recognize the role they
must play in making this a safe world. It also means rethinking what we are doing
for the young and not so young disenfranchised men without hope who are roaming
the streets carrying their frustrations with them. Injustice springs from
injustice, in a vicious circle, and must be tackled by its many roots.
In the coming posts, I will explore how women must take the
lead and drive the change by breaking the barriers of culture and tradition
that are the fiction of an insecure society.In support of
this, here is an interesting piece of research about women and the collectiveintelligence of groups:
“There’s
little correlation between a group’s intelligence and the IQ of its members.
But if a group
includes more
women its collective intelligence rises.” Source: Harvard Business Review
(2011)
