We celebrated “International Women’s Day” with the theme #EachforEqual, drawing attention to the difference individuals can make. But gender equality is still a distant dream in our country.
The “Women’s Reservation Bill” which proposes to reserve 33% seats for women in the Lok Sabha and in all State Legislative Assemblies, is yet be passed. It was passed in Rajya Sabha on 9 March 2010 and subsequently got lapsed. It is yet to come in Lok Sabha.
Far from gender parity, the country has been witnessing is a growing crime against women. The “Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technologies Act” seeks to prevent female infanticide. The schemes like “Janani Suraksha Yojana”, the “Beti Bachao Beti Padhav” campaign…all are aimed women empowerment. But the sex ratio continues to be skewed. At present it is 950 women per 1000 men.
As per the National Crime Records Bureau, the crime rate per lakh women population was 58.8 in 2018 in comparison to 57.9 in 2017. This includes, the “cruelty by husband or his relatives” – 31.9 per cent, ‘’assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty”-27.6 per cent, ‘kidnapping and abduction of women ”- 22.5 per cent and the rape cases-10.3 per cent.
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018 stipulates death penalty, to those convicted of raping children below 12 years. Besides it also has provisions to punish those indulging in such crimes, who uses to escape punishment claiming as “minors”. Section 376E of the IPC stipulates death penalty to the accused involved in rape. Despite such deterrent legislation, criminals do not seem to be deterred. As such a change in mindset of men is need of the hour.
Besides sometimes even “higher ups” also contribute to crime. In a recent case in Mumbai an MLA was booked for harassing and assaulting her daughter-in- law, after she delivered a second premature girl child (who died later). The accused MLA wanted a male child.
While the male literacy rate is 82.14% per cent, the female literacy rate is at 65.46% per cent. Besides by and large, women’s participation in the work force is low at 27 per cent compared to other BRICS (an association of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries.
As of now there are a host of laws to protect women. They include: Right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution, equal pay for equal work under article 39(d) of the Constitution, the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, reservation of one-third of the seats for women in Panchayati Raj Institutions as per the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment.
After many years, the number of women MPs has increased up to 78 (nearly 14%) compared to 62 women MPs in earlier Lok Sabha. Besides a little solace comes to women serving in army, since the Permanent commission will be open for women officers from April 2020 onwards. They can choose the specialised stream for this during the second year of their service.
However deep-rooted patriarchate society continues to affect women’s empowerment. Of late the women are holding important jobs with 42 percent of them earning equal to their husbands, but they still remain subservient to their husbands.
