How long should we be fighting for an equitable space for girls?

By SN Surajbhan
International Day of the Girl Child, celebrated worldwide on 11 October, focuses on amplifying the voices and rights of girls everywhere. The theme for this year, “My voice, our equal future”, re-imagines a better world inspired and led by adolescent girls, as part of the global Generation Equality movement.
The growing violence against women in our country is time and again testing us if at all humanity prevails and how far we provide space for our girls and women to prove that undertaking. If we are in 2020, and concerned about our daughter’s safety while they are stepping out of home, then this means that we are not yet ready towards building up a gender-equalled society and especially when our agenda focuses on re-imagining a better world with inter-generational equity for women in the society. Crime against women, deep rooted patriarchy as well as gender based violence cannot go along with our efforts in nurturing an equitable society.

As a nation, we failed our daughters

According to reports provided by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in 2018 about 109 children are sexually abused each day in India, totaling about 39,827 cases the same year. Such numbers have clearly outcast the heinous side of mankind creating an environment completely unfit for a girl child.
But that is not it, as NCRB has also released the number of rape cases which is about 21,401 in 2018, which have surged to top in no time. The highest number of cases being registered in Maharashtra at 2,832 followed by Uttar Pradesh at 2,023 and then by Tamil Nadu at 1,457.

Odisha fares barely better

Despite the state government’s various path-breaking decisions to place women in better positions both in policies and their social lives, safety and security of girls and women go for a toss.
Further report of 2018 revealed by the NCRB, Odisha has 37 rape cases under 18-years of age.
And when we talk about crime against girl children, child marriages are also not far from the scene as 1,785 cases were registered between 2014 and 2016.
By now, our society should have grown older from the orthodoxical superiority of male counterparts to the modern and vibrant society of equal rights but still the things are not on the table as envisaged.

Are our laws backed by actions?

Across the globe, laws are the front-line barriers that protect every citizen from the acts of crime. There are several laws in India that protect our daughters from violence and abuse and ensure their equitable and rightful position in society. Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act or POSCO Act specifies justice to children against crime like sexual assault, sexual harassment and others.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development has also devised other policies like The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006, The Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act (CPCR), 2005 which provide subtle protection to our daughters in a society wrapped in drama of inequitable space.
Despite legislation that has ensured safety and security for our girls, the growing violence against women in our country is a cause of concern. According to the NCRB report. According to NCRB every fifteen minutes one rape is reported in India, then per day about ninety-six rapes would have been registered.
Strengthening the community level child protection system would be the key to reduce the number of cases being registered.

Bolstering efforts to make a justifiable and equitable space for women

Despite the government’s efforts to promote gender equality and ensure equal participation and representation to build a more cohesive and equitable society, our patriarchy mindset has been the major bottleneck to progress in this line. The government actions that followed the recent Hathras gangrape incident are a sheer example of our historic negligence for women’s rights and dignity in our society.
Better policies provide avenues for policymakers and our legal system to give justice for women but this alone cannot keep our daughters safe on this planet. What is needed is a more sensibility towards their equitable space and even more importantly that they should be treated as a human being above the gender tag-line.
Our daughters have never down-performed whenever they are provided an opportunity but we hardly break any barriers whenever equitable space for them is in discourse. Therefore, we still need to recognize their potential to bolster our efforts to think beyond the stereotypes so that our daughters can become the voice of social transformation and can lead the way to make a society where social injustice, patriarchy and overcome the challenge that come their way to excel.

Comments

What mainstream economists won’t tell you about Chinese modernisation

By Shiran Illanperuma China’s modernisation has been one of the most remarkable processes of the 21st century and one that has sparked endless academic debate. Meng Jie (孟捷), a distinguished professor from the School of Marxism at Fudan University in Shanghai, has spent the better part of his career unpacking this process to better understand what has taken place.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

10,000 students deprived of classes as Ahmedabad school remains shut: MCC writes to Gujarat CM

By A Representative The Minority Coordination Committee (MCC) has written to Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, urging him to immediately reopen the Seventh Day Adventist School in Maninagar, Ahmedabad, where classes have been suspended for nearly two weeks. The MCC claims that the suspension, following a violent incident, violates the constitutional right to education of thousands of children.

Result of climate change, excessive human interference, can Himachal be saved from natural disasters?

By Dr. Gurinder Kaur* These days, almost all districts of Himachal Pradesh are severely affected by natural disasters such as heavy rainfall, cloudbursts, landslides, land subsidence, mudslides, and flash floods. Due to frequent landslides and falling debris, major highways, including the Chandigarh–Manali and Manali–Leh routes, as well as several other roads, have been closed to traffic. Although this devastation is triggered by natural events such as heavy rainfall, cloudbursts, and flash floods, it is not entirely a natural phenomenon. The destruction in Himachal Pradesh is largely the result of climate change and excessive human interference with the state’s fragile environment.

Revisiting Periyar: Dialogues on caste, socialism and Dravidian identity

By Prof. K. S. Chalam* S. V. Rajadurai and Vidya Bhushan Rawat’s joint effort in bringing out a book on the most original iconoclast of South Asia, Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, titled Periyar: Caste, Nation and Socialism, published by People’s Literature Publication, Mumbai, is now available on Amazon and Flipkart . This volume presents an innovative method of documenting the pioneering contributions of a leader like Periyar, and it reflects the scholarship of Rajadurai, who has played a pivotal role in popularizing Periyar in English.

1857 War of Independence... when Hindu-Muslim separatism, hatred wasn't an issue

"The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut", Illustrated London News, 1857 By Shamsul Islam* Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when Hindus and Muslims, the largest two religious communities were divided on communal lines.

Ground reality: Israel would a remain Jewish state, attempt to overthrow it will be futile

By NS Venkataraman* Now that truce has been arrived at between Israel and Hamas for a period of four days and with release of a few hostages from both sides, there is hope that truce would be further extended and the intensity of war would become significantly less. This likely “truce period” gives an opportunity for the sworn supporters and bitter opponents of Hamas as well as Israel and the observers around the world to introspect on the happenings and whether this war could have been avoided. There is prolonged debate for the last several decades as to whom the present region that has been provided to Jews after the World War II belong. View of some people is that Jews have been occupants earlier and therefore, the region should belong to Jews only. However, Christians and those belonging to Islam have also lived in this regions for long period. While Christians make no claim, the dispute is between Jews and those who claim themselves to be Palestinians. In any case...

Fate of Yamuna floodplain still hangs in "balance" despite National Green Tribunal rap on Sri Sri event

By Ashok Shrimali* While the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday reportedly pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for granting permission to hold spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival on the banks of Yamuna, the chief petitioners against the high-profile event Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan has declared, the “fate of the floodplain still hangs in balance.”

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Search This Blog