No country for women

They say women are extremely resilient and can cope with the worst possible scenarios  effectively. I happened to meet 27 year old  Sonali Mukherjee yesterday. Her story touched me.

Seldom have I come across anyone as strong as her. She is an acid attack victim, an attack so brutal that not only did it melt the flesh of her face and left it disfigured, but it caused her to lose sight as well. And why did this happen? Because nine years back, unlike most Indian girls who are subjected to sexual harassment she decided to confront her assailants. The spurned men in a fit of rage decided to take revenge on this beautiful girl of 17 by breaking into her house in Dhanbad, Jharkhand and pouring concentrated acid on her face while she was asleep. The life of a beautiful, bright, young girl with a promising future came to an abrupt halt just like that. Just because she decided to speak up against what was wrong. Her attackers, in the meanwhile were let off on bail and are roaming about freely in the society. 

A few months back I watched the Academy award winning documentary, Saving Face which highlighted the plight of women in Pakistan who were subject to acid attacks by not only outsiders but their own kin! I was aghast when I contemplated as to how inspite of living in the so called civilized 21st century society, we are still not able to eliminate barbarianism from the minds of people. How is it so easy to procure a bottle of acid from the shop round the corner for merely Rs 35 and use it to commit such heinous acts? How perverted must be the mind that devises such an act of revenge? To leave somebody scarred for life, to make somebody's life a living hell.

A little research threw light on how there are hardly any provisions in our law to protect acid attack victims and prevent such attacks. Presently, only sections 320 (causing emasculation and disfigurement), 322 and 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 326 (causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) can be employed to prosecute the culprits. This is not enough. The legislature has proposed to add two sections to the IPC to deal with acid attacks and propose to make these offences non-bailable. I believe this is a welcome move, when implemented but not enough.

There need to be stringent guidelines pertaining to procurement and hoarding of acid just the way they exist for arms and ammunition. Over the counter sale of acid must be banned and the victim should be given adequate compensation and rehabilitation. Police apathy is another issue that needs to be dealt with. Several victims do not file FIRs for the fear of the perpetrators seeking further revenge on them and their families because there isn't any police protection accorded to the victim and her family.

A Thomson Reuters survey says that India is the fourth most dangerous place in the world for women to live in after Afghanistan, Congo and Pakistan. How despicable is the fact that gender targeted crimes such as and not limited to female foeticide, FGM, rape, acid attack, harassment, eve teasing make it to our newspapers every day and that we've learned to live with such incidents happening in our neighbourhoods every day.

What a sorry state of affairs for a country that refer to as our Motherland.

The Judgment of Sita

We are a bunch of hypocrites. We say that women must be given equal rights and equal opportunities in every sphere because after all females constitute 50% of the world population. And there are women in power in almost every sphere of society. The ancient texts refer to a wife being an ardhangini (better half). But does this discount the fact that we still are very much a male chauvinist society? 

I was appalled to read a statement made by learned judges of the Bombay High court wherein while hearing a divorce petition, the judge remarked that "A wife should be like goddess Sita who left everything and followed her husband Lord Ram to a forest and stayed there for 14 years,". While it is not unorthodox for judges to refer to religious texts and quote from them, it was rather surprising to see this coming from a judiciary that is considered to be one of the most progressive in the country. 

A bare reading of the Hindu epics, i.e., the Ramayana and the Mahabharata suggests that a woman was to be treated as her husband's property. Infact, this was still the case till the 19th century in most parts of the world. Hindu women in India have very recently been given equal rights with respect to their father's property but a Hindu woman can still not be considered a coparcener with rights to inherit the coparcenary property.

The epics suggest that Ramayana should be considered to be the ideal way of life.  The protagonist, Ram is referred to as Maryada Purushottam (the ideal man). Does idealism suggest that a man should question his wife's virtue and subject her to agnipariksha to prove that she is 'pure'. Should a man who banishes his pregnant wife be considered an ideal husband? And a wife who accepts her husband inspite of such atrocities be a woman of virtue? I think not.

Similarly, the Mahabharata is rife with examples of subjugation of women. A woman gets married to one man but is 'shared' by his brothers. She is then commodified and placed as a bet in a game of dice. There are attempts made to strip her in an open court but there is nobody who comes to her rescue. The only one who saves her from this humiliation is Lord Krishna who himself has been described as a Casanova married to several women. Is this the kind of society we envisage? Rather, doesn't such a mentality already exist in the light of the numerous incidents that we read every other day? A virtuous wife is one who will blindfold herself for life just because her husband is blind. It is rather unfortunate that such notions are considered to be the ideal way of life.

In a nation that is plagued with crimes against women and where even the judiciary considers subjugation of women to be a way of life, female emancipation means little. So the next time a case of incest comes up, will the Honourable Court suggest that a wife should be like Draupadi?

Nationally yours

Change is inevitable.

Without much further ado, here are a few things that should change about India keeping in mind our sensibilities.

• National sport: Spitting-->Move over hockey. The new sport that's taken the nation by a storm is spitting.It's not just paan mind you, spitting saliva, spitting wrappers just about anything and everything. The golden rule being what is in must come out. Spit when you're bored, spit when you're not. All the road is a spitoon and all men (and women) are mere spits-men.(Mr. Shakespeare, please don't turn in your grave at this humble attempt of mine in trying to imitate your inimitable style). And remember to add sound effects when you spit, "Aaaaak-thoo" is the most common example. And a country that's obsessed with freebies, the bonus deal that it gets with this is free Tuberculosis and redder roads. Amazing right?!

• National animal: Mosquitoes/ Houseflies-->Why have an animal of which only 1411 specimens are left, as your national animal and then go through all the humiliation of not being able to safeguard your national animal. Try conferring the coveted status to Mosquitoes or Houseflies. They're in abundance. You'll never have to face a crisis of fussing over how to save your national animal. And "Makkhi the club" sounds better than "Stripey the club" naa? And your new tagline could be 'Save the Makkhis-only 1411 billion left!'

• National bird: Crows--> They're everywhere. I had to wait till I was 7 years old to see a peacock. But I'm sure I had seen a crow in the first week of my birth. And they work brilliantly as morning alarms, help is boosting the detergent sales (Read: bird shit) and making Ram Gopal Varma's movies seem slightly eerie. Way to go Crow! (Did that just rhyme?)

• National language: Facebook/Orkut/Chat lingo--> Now with states having issues over the use of Hindi because it is way too "North-Indian" a language and with English being the language of the Queen and a mark of British superiority over us, the question arises as to what the national language should be. The answer is simple. "Dudes/Dudettes Y dun ya try da chat lingo. 'Tis Kewl nd u'll be kewler if u use it." And everybody all over the country knows it and none of our politicians will have a problem with it!

• National anthem: Dhan te nan--> I've seen the lines of distress on people's faces when they're supposed to stand for the national anthem before the start of a movie. And before you hear the last 'Jaya He' people are already plonked back onto their seats. However, the Kaminey song can sure make them stand in respect (and sway a little too).

• National flower: Cauliflower--> Why should lotus get the coveted status of being the national flower? Just because it's pretty, eh? Nobody, ever thought of the humble 'gobhi ka phool'. What would our Mother's ever do without it's versatile existence? I hear a kitchen crisis! Love it or loathe it, you're sure to have had it! :|

• National song: Beedi jalaiyle--> A lot of people aren't even aware that Vande Mataram is our National song and the Sanskrit lyrics are way too complicated for most. So how does the prospect of Beedi Jalaiyle sound? Very hum-able song, nothing complicated about the lyrics, connects with the classes and masses alike AND everybody knows it already!

Disclaimer: For those who are a little slow, this post is intended to be sarcastic.