Whither women empowerment

The popular belief that men are from Mars and Women are from Venus stands corrected.Women are from Venus but today they can easily straddle to Mars as well for there is hardly anything that a man can do which a woman cannot, provided she wills. Everyone has an inherent will to survive against odds, to put a brave front during troubled times which sometimes get faint with the onslaught of time. External factors lead to further loss of faith in oneself and life and then there comes a time when a woman loses all hope and becomes a mere shadow of her earlier self. This is when she falls prey to the scheming monsters of the world that comes in the form of dowry demons, abusive relationships or sexual harassment. Proper education love and affection in childhood creates a confident woman in adulthood but only a handful of the Indian girl-child is fortunate enough to enjoy such a status. Poverty and the obsession with the male child of an average Indian family is a constant impediment to any real development of the little women in our country. In such a state the claims of women’s emancipation becomes mere politically correct statements of a politically correct nation.

There is no denying the fact that many women, many urban women have achieved great heights in their chosen fields marching ahead in life matching every step with their male counterparts but these are mostly modern women of modern India. These women are educated enlightened and worldly wise but what about the women in the villages? Can we name a few women who have defied norms? The pattern shows that the urban women are constantly evolving and improving their quality of life but sadly the lives of the rural women are at a standstill. In our country girls are still married off at a tender age risking both their health and future, they still face hardships and persecution by society to a large extent, all because they are not aware of the changing face of modern women. Very few girls complete school and go to college as marriage is the only goal that they can look forward to. Early marriage and early children compounded with the responsibility of keeping house seldom allow these women to seek greener pastures. They are also often abused by their husbands or in laws and fail to stand up for themselves. And since the majority of our population dwell in villages the talks of women emancipation seems irrelevant, for we need to uphold the cause of the women folk of the village. We need to educate them to make them aware of their rights. Every woman in the village needs to be enlightened and empowered.

When women are able to thwart the immoral advances, avoid dowry deaths, avoid persecution by any member and stand on her own feet in the rural areas only then the empowerment of woman be complete but until then just a dream.