thoughts on women’s day!
Riskier Gender?!
Last year this time around the women’s day, I had saluted the women in my life and this year I would like to reflect upon what makes a women weak – you may not agree but the Indian social fabric does not provide her enough spindles to make her own fabric that is strong enough!
Was talking with my mom during the KBC yesterday and we agreed that women as such are risk averse and the genesis and conclusion of this agreement were the two cases in sequence – Rohit Sharma and Jeenu Priya – the two back to back contestants at KBC. When Rohit had won 12.50 lacs and had no lifeline left, he decided to take the risk of guessing an answer which if wrong would have taken him to 2.40 lacs. Now when Jeenu was at 1.20 lacs without any lifeline left, she decided to quit. Though this may not be conclusive evidence on risk taking abilities but it was definitely representative of it.
My mom agreed and I too feel that risk taking abilities are neither instilled nor encouraged among girls in our land where we worship women-power but kill it before she takes birth – and we shy away to term it as the rarest of rare crime befitting the most severe punishment world has ever known. Going not very far, I was always asked to accompany my sister to her friends’ place if it was dark outside. If my sis missed her bus, my dad would take her to school but if I missed the bus, I would be asked to go on my own – though that time I thought that Dad loves sis more than me, I now realize that it was my parent’s hesitation to allow my sister grow out of the cocoon that girls are made to live in – under parents before marriage and then under husbands after marriage.
But who is to blame? Society as a whole who makes the fairer sex vulnerable – people like Matto, Nithari villain – Mohinder Singh, etc. and then people like you and me who think marriage as a means of earning money. Just imagine if these two malaise are wiped off, much of the vulnerability of women would vanish. Though, there is good improvement in what cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore show but I won’t be moved out of my wits if a scandal is busted of foeticide in any of these metros. And to talk of rest of India is like seeking an ever elusive utopia. But the comfort is that a beginning has been made.
Another point is the support of the selfish NGOs – who for seeking various benefits tend to take up the cause of any injustice to women in large cities but shy away from spreading their reach to remote places of rural/semi-urban India. But, I do appreciate what ever work they are doing and wish that in short time they will cover almost whole of India. Though the Palna scheme is a noble act from the government but I feel it is inherently flawed as I wrote about it in detail a few days back.
In my opinion, the only two things that can uplift the status of women in our country is education and financial freedom and this reservation will do no good. I, for one, have never come across a lone female borrower in my short banking career and I regret it. She always came with her husband or son or father etc. Risk averse? Who?
