Atlantean Thoughts

I realized that March 8 is the International Women's Day when I switched on my radio at 0400, after the weird psychological condition of apathy encircled me almost totally. I was trying to get a grip on the complex world of Indian agriculture when I realized there is no use studying when your brain shows you the middle finger.

I switched on the radio, pressed the scan button a few times to reach AIR and there came an interview between the host and some prominent woman leader. Words like self belief were heard more often than any other.

Fast forward to 1330, when I woke up, after some much needed sleep. Again, words like self belief were heard more often than any other in interviews with a woman professor of Delhi University and a prominent woman politician of Uttar Pradesh.

From the primary status that they occupied in the Indus Valley society, Indian women have been reduced to a liability in the agrarian country that India is today (you know, a male is an extra pair of hands in the field compared to a woman). More so, in the chiefly agrarian states of northern India like Punjab, Haryana compared to the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where women still occupy high societal status.

India has an awful sex ratio of 933 males per 1000 females. This is all the more surprising when you know that there are quite a lot of women who have been in the higher echelons of Indian society, like say the Indira Gandhis and M. S. Subbalakshmis. Women, these days get 33% reservation in educational institutions. A similar scheme is being mulled over to get 33% reservation for women in the Parliament. Women always find chivalrous male counterparts who kick the shit out of their fellows who try to act too smart with women, in cinema ticket queues.

Even so, women in India are still confronted with problems like denial of education (unlike their brothers), eve teasing (which has more spread than any other problem), "moral policing" (you know, wear only salwar kameez instead of jeans and tops), rape, sexual harassment and the like.

The average Indian woman (which includes teenaged girls) today needs male company whenever she ventures out of the house. Men's primal instincts, it seems, have shown only a distressingly more intensive trend. We are all used to hearing stories about eve teasing cases, in which no distinction is shown between women in their vayasu and those married with kids. Stories like Hemangani's are becoming more ubiquitous day by day.

When one thinks of a solution to the afore mentioned problems, there seem to be no straight solutions, apart from the jail term one would get if convicted of rape. Punishment for eve teasing and sexual harassment also have provisions in Indian law but these are the areas in which enforcing the law is found to be more difficult. And of course there are cases in which courts themselves deny justice, for example, in the case of IAF officer Anjali Gupta

So it looks like the "saga" of the Indian woman continues, Indian democracy or not, rule of law or not. Of course, there are stars like Jayalalitha and Sania Mirza but please note that Sania is valued (yes, I dare to say this because I've heard it so often) by Indian men more for her physical attributes than her sporting talents.

Here's some caution to all those nationalists who are gung ho about seeing India on the map of the world's superpowers (with unreasonable levels of optimism of course): While our population is such a burden over us as a nation, it is also a problem which when turned into an opportunity can yield unbelievable results. Do note that we have a middle class which is higher in number compared to the entire population of the United States!

This figure, however, hides some things, mainly the male – female divide. While we rave and rant about India's demographic advantages (much to the irritation of Western ears), we must question ourselves about how many of our 1.038 billion people are really contributing to the nation's economy. Even today, a large proportion of those millions are housewives. China is going to be a nation of oldies, gulping healthcare funds (as it is already happening in Japan and Europe), much sooner than India . India, then, will be having the largest "workable" population in the world – a tremendous demographic advantage. But when almost half of those (i.e., women) spend their time serving their husbands chai and making Bournvita for their children, how can we say that we have the largest "workable" population?

Of course, the women are not to blame for this. This is a serious issue which needs to be addressed by our leaders. Our women are some of the most talented in the world. Many of them have earned honours in India and elsewhere but their contribution can be nowhere comparable to that of the men's contributions.

This has to change. I am a man and at times, I feel ashamed and even guilty to live in a country in which most of our women dont get the leverage that they should in daily life. "50%" is the word. It is time we live in a country in which men and women contribute equally i.e., in a 50-50 proportion and thereby ensuring that we take advantage of our distinct demographic prospects.