“M.K Gandhiji once told: India will be free when the women feel safe to walk in the streets of India in the midnight!!”
-A women civil defence officer in Delhi was raped and brutally murdered in the month of August.
-An IIT student from Guwahati, who was accused of raping his fellow mate was set free on bail by the court stating him to be a future asset of the nation.
-Post gang rape of a student hailing from Mysore University, the University released a notice which barred the movement of girl students around the campus post 6.30 pm.
-Sexual activity with wife is not considered illegal, even if it is by force’ stated Supreme Court in the recent ruling.
Women in India are first among the few nations to gain voting rights. In the year 1934 India saw its 1st Women President which even the so-called global master USA had failed. In spite of such remarkable examples of Empowerment India remains the 4th most dangerous country in the world for the women to live in.
It is quite true that a woman in India, will think twice before stepping out of her house. The number of girls who will proudly say “I was never physically or mentally harassed by any man of my country” will surely be least. Gandhiji’s dream of true independence seemed brutally massacred when, the guardian of civilians, a civil defence officer was raped and killed. When the protector of the law, the honourable court set free the ‘Prima facie’ accused as the future asset of the nation, the tremor of thought on “What form of asset will the man turn of out to be?!! continues to buzz in our minds.
If barring the movements of female students was the best decision, a well renowned university and its administration could take, then there finds no difference between illiterate parents of older generation who got their daughters married off without sending them to schools. Even then the fear was same. The fear of the male dominated society! The fear of deterioration of womanhood.
A woman and man both have their bodily autonomy. Post 2018 passive Euthanasia was too made legal in India with which an individual could decide to end his/her life. A woman could decide whether to have a child in her womb or no until 24 weeks of pregnancy, meanwhile if a husband is permitted to claim right over the bodily autonomy of a woman without her own consent and a court of law accepting it to be legal is really a matter to re think on.
There exists several reasons for women being in the age old fearful state. From socially-enabled gestures to lack of strong law against the miscreants, women are still being in shadow to react or act against the atrocity, most of all lack of a separate subject of study on gender and gender-based education are all some among the causes. The day when men and women alike decides not to use the statement “Wear bangles and sit within your home” as an attribution of vulnerability, probability might be a day when a society begins to accept the worth of existence of woman.
Image by Gerd Altmann
