VIEWPOINT

Women’s Role in Social Transformation : An Insight

International Women’s Day on 8 March which has been celebrated all over the world is a suitable occasion for examining the women’s role in social transformation. Why do we need to talk about women, and not men’s role in social transformation? Simply because despite unequal status accorded in a patriarchal society, there are innumerable accounts of women overcoming various odds to bring about change in their lives and those around them.

The mass mobilisation of women in the world for their socio-political change in society started long before. Women have come a long, long way. And still have a long way to go.

Ms. Vigdis Finnbogado’ttir, President of Iceland, declared a few years ago, "there is no democracy in our democratic countries. Why? Women have not got the same status in decision making as men." Or for example, let us examine another prominent leader’s role in women’s empowerment. Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan during her regime was able to remove restrictions on the press, trade unions, students’ organisations and freedom to jailed women, but the ordinances permitting women to be lashed or stoned for adultry (or for a rape portrayed as adultry) remained in place.

Wife beating is so prevalent in the world; that social workers who assist battered women in Egypt, for example, spend much of their time trying to convince such victims that their husband’s violent acts are unacceptable. But these are not the worst female sufferings. Each year hundreds of women die in "honour killings", murdered by husbands or male relatives of women suspected of disobedience, usually a sexual indiscretion or marriage against the family’s wishes.

Female circumcision, also called female genital mutilation, is another case in point. FGM is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa and Egypt with scattered cases in Asia and other parts of Middle East.

Even Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, an aggressive secular activist who gave women unprecedented rights in the Muslim world found it hard to accept women as equals in his own life.

In Iran, the legal age for marriage is nine for girls, fourteen for boys. The law has occasionally been exploited by pedophiles, who marry poor young girls and then abandon them. In 2000, the Iranian Parliament voted to raise the minimum age for girls to fourteen, but in 2001 a legislative body, dominated by traditional clerics, vetoed the most.

Women in Islamic societies face great difficulty in suing divorce, but men are released from their marriage vows virtually on demand in some places merely by orating "I divorce you" three times. Though in most Muslim states divorces are entitled to alimony, in Pakistan it lasts only three months, long enough to ensure the women is not pregnant.

In Saudi Arabia the subjugation of women took an official recognition (it took only Taliban to outdo the Saudis). They are not allowed to drive cars or fly anywhere without the husband’s permission.

And remembering the very sad incident in Kashmir, when fundamentalist groups demanded that women start wearing veils (burqa). When this was ignored, hooligans threw acid on their faces.

A casual traveller to any part of Indian peninsular can witness women working hard, but where are they working? In the unorganized sector. An estimate of the National Commission of Self-employed Women reveals that 94% of workforce is in this sector. Disturbing are these cold statistics, reflecting the gender equality graph.

The rights, for which women suffragettes fought long and hard in many western countries was won at one stroke by the Indian women. It fulfilled the promise made many years ago by the national movement; women got the vote, along with men, without any qualification of education, property or income. But soon after independence it became clear that the constitutional equality did not mean much unless basic assumptions regarding social power and control were challenged. The deeply entrenched patriarchal bias against women in Indian society is far from ebbing as we step into the 21st century.

Women’s share in Parliament is only 8.9% and the Bill seeking to reserve one-third seats for women in Parliament and state legislatures has faced stiff opposition.

Enrolment of girls in secondary education stands at 38% and female share of employment in industry and services in mere 15%. A large number of girls are married off before they turn 18, the decline in sex-ratio indicates that women’s life is perhaps at a greater risk, and dowry deaths continue to claim lives and have almost doubled from 2000-2001.

Another nasty side of the coin shows that female literacy in Barmer (Rajasthan) is 8%, lower than Burkina Faso in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is 10%. The infant mortality rate in Gunjam, the worst district of India in this respect, is 164 per thousand lives births, which is worse than Mali, the worst country in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is 161. The fertility rate in U.P is 5.1%, which is higher than the average for all low-income countries and much higher than even Burma and Bangladesh. The female-male ratio, i.e number of women per 1000 males in Haryana is 865, a level lower than that of any country in the world.

But then India is a land of opposites. And several bright spots dot this gloomy scenario. The state of Kerala is a record that many would envy. The adult literacy rate in 1990-91 was 86% for women and 94% for men. This was higher than China which is 68% for women and 86% for men. By 1987-88, in Kerala the female rural literacy rate in the 10-14 age group was 98%. The total fertility rate in 1992 was 1.8, which is below the replacement level of 2.1, and which is the rate in the US and Sweden. Fortunately, Kerala is not the only bright example. There are success stories, notably from Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu too.

Another important development has been announced recently from the Law Ministry’s department of Company Affairs, that there is a proposal that a fifth of all boards of directors must be women.

Another significant improvement in women’s situation was during the last decade when hundreds of autonomous women’s groups were established, and these groups brought out magazines and acted as watchdogs on the media for scanning advertisements and films derogatory to women, raised issues related to women’s health, or campaigned against girl foeticide, for the rights of the girl child, or for providing basic necessities for women in slums.

- Ms. Hajnal Kumar
(The author is a Hungarian journalist living in New DelhIi)