The women's reservation bill, is once again at a cross roads, thanks to Sharad Yadav. While the rest of the nation, particularly woman clamor for the bill, which would reserve one third of the seats in the Lok Sabha & State Legislature for them, Yadav stands firm in his opposition.
He has since clarified that he opposes the bill in its present form & wants a quota within a quota. Not stopping short he has compared himself to Socrates in his willingness to die by poison. Socrates was administered poison. I'm not certain anybody would do Yadav the favor within parliament.
Women in India are a beleaguered lot. As an exercise lets see why by drawing up a laundry list.
- Women are worshipped as Saraswati, but most girl children are not allowed primary schooling.
- Women are worshipped as Shakti, but female infanticide is rampant.
- Women are worshipped as Lakshmi, but very few have any kind of economic freedom.
- Women are worshipped as Durga but face domestic violence as a matter of routine.
- Dowry deaths are a horror which refuses to go away.
- Daughters are routinely discriminated against, in many homes, in reference to sons, as a practice which run contrary to our constitutional laws.
- As a rule, women are eve teased, harassed and molested in a great many of our cities.
- Workplace discrimination against woman is rampant and a definite glass ceiling exists.
- Only woman suffer honor killings in certain communities.
The list is off the cuff and I can list many more points with some thought.
The sign of a civilized society is that which learns to treat all its people with respect & dignity. I'm sure India does not want to go down as a nation of bullies in following Yadav's call to oppose the bill.
Woman in India are grossly under represented in politics and unless this changes, rapidly, the lot of woman is not going to improve and this is sure to have a multiplier effect on our development.
Men at large in India must understand that a woman is his equal in all spheres of life. This can occur only if woman are politically and economically emancipated. No amount of talk in this direction is going to help. Its time we jettison hypocrisy.
For once, I thought, Manmohan Singh, had showed some spine, but with the ambivalent statements that have followed I'm not certain that we are going to see this bill going on to be part of our constitution.
I'm not certain I'm going to be around to see woman get full emancipation in this country, but I hope my son sees it happen.........................
I wonder what Yadav's wife has to say about all the commotion?
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