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For women?s empowerment ban word ?abla?
CELEBRATIONS ARE still continuing, so is the miserable plight of women. But when it is in vogue to celebrate all days ? Mothers? Day, Fathers? Day, Valentine?s Day, Grandfathers? Day et al -- why not celebrate the International Women?s Day in India where women are still struggling to become a ?sabla? from ?abla? (a favourite refrain of the speakers at majority of the conferences held in the city).
CELEBRATIONS ARE still continuing, so is the miserable plight of women. But when it is in vogue to celebrate all days – Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day, Valentine’s Day, Grandfathers’ Day et al -- why not celebrate the International Women’s Day in India where women are still struggling to become a ‘sabla’ from ‘abla’ (a favourite refrain of the speakers at majority of the conferences held in the city).
Consolation, however, came from the fact that women in an advanced nation like the United States not only got voting rights very late, but also they are still struggling for political empowerment. And while they have yet to get their first woman president, India was lucky to have a woman prime minister at a time when women empowerment had not picked up as a slogan and when the country hardly celebrated International Women’s Day.
Nevertheless, in India women’s journey to political empowerment is not only very long but is also tortuous and thorny. Agreed, women in India are still ‘abla’ socially, physically and economically despite the giant steps taken by a handful of them in almost all fields -- from gram pradhans to industrialists. But where is the need to harp on the word ‘abla’. Don’t men get kidnapped and killed? Aren’t they also weak before the more powerful killers? So should they also be dubbed as ‘abla’?
In fact I abhor the word ‘abla’, which, according to me, should be banned as a first step towards women empowerment. The word ‘abla’ evokes pity and not compassion. The humiliating word mirrors helplessness (lachari). It hardly highlights the inherent qualities of a woman. Just as the usage of words like chamar, Harijan etc were banned as they were used to socially humiliate a section of society, similarly words like ‘abla’, ‘bechari’ etc should be banned as a first step towards women empowerment. Hopefully, some women activists and government officials will take note of this demand and celebrate the day when such words are banned in the country.
There is no denying the fact that women’s journey to political, economic and social empowerment is beset with obstacles. Take the statistics reeled out by the National Crime Record Bureau recently. The rate at which women are raped in the country comes to two every hour. A simple calculation would further help understand the alarming situation - 48 in a day, 1440 in a month and 5,25,600 in an year. What a pity the Union Government is still in two minds to bring a law to hang the rapist. Why can’t there be pressure on the government to evolve methods to check crime against women. The government should at least evolve ways to punish the culprits. Is it not shameful that rapists can get away with the crime that they inflict on a woman’s body, mind and soul!
Lets talk about UP. As many as 1893 women were killed for dowry as against 927 in Bihar, another badland of Northern India. But then did the Uttar Pradesh government or the State Women’s Commission deem it fit to include the two young girls from East and West pockets of the state, who displayed guts to return dowry-seeking grooms, in their list of 32 awardees.
The government must admit its failure to check the rampant practice of dowry despite laws to prohibit it. But ask the officials and they will instead like to take pride in the fact that Andhra Pradesh, a more developed state, reported the highest incidence of overall crimes against women instead of UP. But then figures hardly matter as ground reality is often more scary than statistics.
So, there is nothing wrong in celebrating the International Women’s Day as the journey has begun. Progress can be achieved only by display of strength and not weaknesses and this is where most of the conferences held in the city and country failed in. They highlighted pain and problems of women more than submitting solutions that could relieve them of that. The government, as usual, had little to offer. Leaders that matter did reiterate their commitment to the Women’s Reservation Bill.
The celebrations are coming to an end. They neither brought any smiles nor any solutions. It passed off more as a ritual. Next year again on March 8, there will be conferences when speakers would have to do little but update statistics in their old speeches. Nothing would change till women in particular, and society in general, stopped pitying. Rights come when strengths are highlighted and not weaknesses. Think over it, there is still an year to go.
