Women’s Rights India
This article discussed how the women’s feminist movement in
India is taking a turn in the right direction for women. The rights of women in
India were called into question when a young girl was kidnapped and raped in
June of 2012. Since this happened there have been many improvements court cases
involving women have started to be processed much quicker than they had been in
years past. Many cases dealing with attacks against women are actually going to
trial; women are beginning to receive better representation that they had been
allowed before. Even with these improvements there is still the fact that women
in India are beginning to step out of the “tradition” roles usually afforded to
them, but the mindset of society is still far behind. Women are venturing
outside of the home for work and education but the belief that the women’s
place is out of the public eye is one that is very difficult to change. After
the June attack on the young Indian girl the young generations of Indian women
took notice and began to speak out and protest. They took their cry for
justice, opportunity, and equality public where it could not be ignored. Annie
Zaidi an author said that, “Feminists in India are fighting for issues of
immediate critical urgency – violence, equal wages, and life with dignity.”
Women want to contribute to society in ways that were usually reserved for men,
women want to work and have better educational opportunities but they need the
protection, they need updated laws to better allow them to move out in society
without constant worry of attack. Nivedita Menon, author of “Seeing Like a
Feminist” believes that the wants of the feminist movement have not changed of
the years, if anything the wants have become more focused and precise in what
these women are asking of the government. Rather than an extreme overhaul of
the government she says that women want, “accountability of the police, state
agencies and the law and protocols to be set in place to deal with sexual
violence.” Vrinda Nabar, a former chairwoman of English at Mumbai University,
summed the plight of women in India and how things need to change by saying, “Mindsets
need to change at every level, and all of us need to recognize the inherited
prejudices of our collective consciousness once the protesters and their
placards have vacated the streets.”
Lynne E. Davis
8 March 2013
16:05
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