Women’s Empowerment — A Stark Reality!
‘Women/Girls have become independent these days with absolute financial and expressional freedom. They are the torch bearers owing to the ’n’ number of revolutions which they had brought in different spheres worldwide. There is constant empowerment of women in various developed and under developing societies as they are coming out in large numbers from bondages to which they were being subjected to, by the patriarchal mindsets, leading the way towards more tolerant society where equality is supreme!’
(I’m sure, we all must have come across at least one of the above phrases in any point of time hitherto in our lives)
Well, sometimes, I ardently feel that do people (especially the dominating class) really realize what they are providing affirmation to? Do they really meant what the equality is or are such fancy words of women empowerment and freedom, just their tools of hiding under the cape of ‘so called’ feminists? Absolute denial of the fact that women are breaking the ceilings and actively contributing towards the development of the nation would be wrong but fortunately or unfortunately, it holds true only for a handful of women just like the tip of the iceberg whereby the entire massive berg under the ground is still mirroring the grim realities of their stark future.
Not to talk of rural areas; even if we consider urban and developed pastures of the country, the vulnerability of women is extremely pitiable. They are usually considered weak, senseless and dependent who always require a male figure behind her back to support her, without whom she is good for nothing. They are usually ignored from the general decision making set up and disrespect of a girl’s choice whilst taking decisions concerning her life, is something that Indian families are pro at. Even when, their inputs are taken into account, it seems that it’s just for the sake of completion of formality because it is not counted at all anywhere. Women’s independency is brutally stabbed whenever they heard phrases like, ‘We can’t leave her alone at home’ (not to talk of sending her out of town), ‘We can’t take her along even to the safest places like airport after midnight’, ‘We can’t let her go to attend parties in the evening’, etc. Leave alone the above, when someone else dictates a women’s life by imposing their decisions in the trivial (est) matters of their life like the dresses to be worn, personal grooming items to be picked, etc., is nothing less than an alien world to her.
Well, these are only some of the few instances which I could gather here. There are a lot of other things which went either unnoticed or noticed (but ignored) concerning the women’s sovereignty every single day. It’s completely fine to be concerned of a girl’s/women’s well-being but over concern and interference in every single matter of their life should be a big ‘no’. The parents or anyone else, for that matter, should step in whenever she asks for it. Sometimes, I wonder, the way a male and female child is brought up, actually makes a big difference in the manner, they tackle a stressful situation. Males are usually far more confident and fearless than women are, when it comes to swinging through ups and downs of life as they are being brought up in an environment which allows them enough flexibility on their part to ‘try out’, ‘fail’ and ‘start afresh’, which is regrettably not the case with women. Women are always kept protected inside the four walls, under the shadow of their family members and even a small divergence from the society-laid norms is intolerable. People need to understand that a sunflower attains its full glory only when it sees the light of the day. Therefore, it’s high time now that we should transform our patriarchal mindset and begin acknowledging women’s rights and thus encouraging their empowerment in the real sense of the term.
