Crazy Thoughts

Today while reading an article on women situation in India these two questions arose in my mind and I was able to get a close picture about women’s situation in our society i.e. battling for basics in the society. No doubt our society is now pressing hard to make this generation and upcoming generation women’s financially independent and self identity, by educating them, by giving special legal rights, by providing reservations and through various other means, but still something is bounding them, some social barriers lie in their way. Why do the social norms keep them down even if a woman is financially independent?

Or is it our society has put a mask on its face, to show the world, that they are working for women’s upliftment, empowerment with the slogan of ‘providing equal rights’, ‘parallel place’ in society. But still their liberty and integrity is being hunted for an era in the society. Now what are those reasons which had compelled our society to behave in such creepy manner, where a section of society comprising of half the population is being dominated by the other half? And still with modern views and believes we are unable to break that curse. Well these are some freaking questions which arise in the minds of many of us from time to time but answers are still not configured.

Now if we talk about the ancient civilizations like Indus valley civilizations or Vedic society, the matriarchy was in practice, in which females, especially mothers, have the central roles. Of the three major streams of Hindu beliefs i.e. vaishanavism, shavism, and shaktism; Shaktism believes female as the source of power an prosperity. People worship the goddess Durga as supreme power which shows their belief & respects for the women. This shows our inherent belief in recognizing the role and importance of women in our lives. But the question arises as what has dragged us down?

The answer to the question can be found somewhere in the medieval history where numerous changes came in our social and cultural practices. The series of Islamic invasions posed a threat to the security of women in our society which lead us to form a protectionist approach towards our family (especially women). Further the establishment of Mughal Empire in our country worsened the situation. Their culture didn’t have any respect for the women rather they considered them as a source of luxury. The practices of ‘Haram’ and polygamy played a crucial role in making the women much more unsecured. Thus the common man prevented their women from visiting outside, going to schools and participating in public ceremonies. These practices further lead to the practice of ‘Purdah-system’ in Hindus as well. This made our women dependent and uneducated which lead them to lose their identity. The continuation of those practices for hundreds of years had molded our behavior and restricted our vision.

The modern history experienced the colonial rule and era of slave trading. They brought more inhuman practices in the society than any time before. The British also did nothing for the upliftment of women. This has much worsened situation and lead to the origin of social barrier and social boundaries for women in the society. But after independence our government is trying hard to change the scenario and vision but is still it is unable to break that curse and is unable to pull women out. They have provided women with n number of legal rights but didn’t make them aware of the right usage of those rights. The government believes that providing rights would uplift the women of our society but actually this has resulted much worsen the situation as if we can see many live examples from our society where these right s are misused and had resulted into serious consequences. These rights which were initially drafted to safeguard their rights and to remove women exploitation, but with the time there is an increment in misuse of this rights by some mischievous women of our society. Thus the rights are not exercised in the right way.

We should rather find right ways to uplift this section of society which comprises half the population so as to create a balance in our society we should try to eliminate these social barriers and make the women of our society financially independent. And bring their battle for basic rights to an end with some positive results…….