The Delusion of Equality

In May 2013, Forbes magazine ranked two Indian women amongst the top 10 most powerful women in the world. While this remains true, here in India we have had cases like the Delhi rape case or the currently fizzing case of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal. However, both of these facts mark the two extremes of the situation in hand.

Today (26th of August) most Hindu mothers in the northern part of India are fasting without a grain of food and a drop of water for the safety and prosperity of their sons, though I have my doubts if any of these sons is doing the same for his mother. A few days from now Hindu married women will again fast for one full day without food and water for the long life of their husbands. And once again none of these husbands would be doing the same.

These are just two of the innumerable number of fasts that women keep for the males in their lives. And without the slightest hint of doubt I can claim that there are no such religious customs for men. Let alone Hinduism, no Muslim male has to wear a 'burkha' but a pious Muslim woman is required to be veiled inside one. These are just a few entries in the infinitely large list of inequalities in religious practises towards women.

On one hand we talk about women empowerment and on the other, we investigate and charge a woman for going to a temple while she was undergoing her menstrual cycle (http://genderbytes.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/is-it-a-crime-to-menstruate/). The whole hypocrisy of equal rights for women and women empowerment is based on the mind set that women are the weaker sex. They are forced to accept this not only physically but psychologically as well.

How can we ever expect a girl to grow into a woman immune to any gender bias when she has always had her mother in front of her who is fasting for her father and brother and never have them do the same ? Why will a girl feel equal when there are different sets of governing rules for her brother and herself? Forget about equality, why will she ever feel human when she is considered to 'pollute' God because of some biological phenomenon ?

Putting up boards in public transport yelling “for ladies only” is not the solution to bridging the divide between men and women. If the society is really serious about this issue, resolutions and laws need to be passed at the family level. We need to make sure that our daughters in no way feel inferior to their brothers. If not so, Forbes top 10 list will surely have a few more Indian women but the common Indian women will be further clutched in the shackles of patriarchy.