gender equality- right approach
Women are considered weaker sex. . Woman has been the subject matter of literature and an essential compnent of luxurious life style of the affluent. Woman is very important omponent of the phrase "Wine, woman and song". In Hindi, they call it- "Sur, Sura Sundari".
In male dominated society, woman has always been treated as an object. Undoubtedly, there has been a good progress in living conditions of women. There are many women in high positions, playing their role well. This gives an impression that women are now equal.
However, gender equality is a myth in spite of apparent equality. The reality ia that women are still treated as an object rather than eqal partner of man.This is evidenced by the fact that seldom a man will be accept a woman earning more than him or in a superior position has his wife. When a wife achieves more, the family life gets badly affected. This aspect was the theme of Hindi movie ABHIMAAN.
Women suffer from several handicaps as compared to men. Men cannot be raped. Men cannot be molested. Men can freely move to any place any time without fear of their modesty being outraged. Men do not fear loss of chastity or honour unlike women. This is the real difference between men and women. Hardly anybody wants to remove it. Even women campaingn to make working places, hotels,parks,etc. safer for them and want more strict law against rape and outraging of their modesty. more strict law to protect women from sexual harassThey little ponder over that as long as there are different standards for chastity, modesty and honour for men and women, there can be no real gender equality.By campainging to make ment, they are actually strengtheningmale domination.
Law also recognizes that women are just commodity. The law on adultery is a fine example. If a man has sex with another man's wife, he is guilty of adultery and can be punished on lodging of a complaint by husband of the woman. But a woman indulging in sex with another woman's husband cannot be punished for adultery on compalint of the wife. This is so because woman is simply an object like furniture. Even though man and woman are both involved in adultery, the woman cannot be charged even with abetment of the offense. Another example is law on rape. Only a man can be charged with rape. Even if a woman forces sex on a man, there is no rape in eye of law. The only reason is that law considers woman as a mere object.Man is user and so only he can be guilty of an offense.
Even our religious ritruals indicate that a woman is an object only. 'Kanya Daan' is a ritual whereby father donates his daughter to the bridegroom. Only an object can be given as donation. This implies that daughter is considered as her father's property. A girl is also called "paraya dhan' meaning other's property because ultimately she is to be donated.
The women organization and others actually interested in real emanicipation of women and genuine gender equality should consider the real causes of inequality and campaingn for changing mindset of people. Rape and molestation of women should not be blown out of proportion. A raped woman is no worse than a man sodomized. If a male victim of sexual asault does not suffer from any social stigma, there is no reason why female should suffer. Rape is nothing but a physical asault and raped woman should not suffer from any stigma or shame. Strictness against rape and outraging modesty is of no use if the concerned woman suffers from social stigma. In the west, rape victims do not suffer from the sort of social stigma that Indian women suffer. The law on rape and adultery need to be amended for the sake of gender equality.
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