Women’s Rights in India
This article looked at the budget of the government of India
and the allocating of funds to create a women’s only bank and create new laws
that are meant to help protect women. Palaniappan Chidambaram, the Finance
Minister, said that low “castes” and women “will be left behind” without the
funds that were set aside. This has been well received by some women like Pinky
Anand who is a lawyer in the Supreme Court that works with rape victims. She
says that, “I think it is extremely encouraging and high time that the
government moves towards ensuring a focus and priority on women’s issues.”
Still some women are asking for more support and help from the government not
in the form of money but by creating more jobs, improving sanitation, and
creating more laws to increase women’s safety in public areas. More and more
women are leaving the home setting and going into the public realm for work and
education and there are very few laws that help to protect these women once
they venture outside the home. Women are simply asking for the safety and
security that men have in the law to be given to women. Jayati Ghosh, a
professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University says that the funds given by the government
are a nice thought but are simply a “grand gesture.” She claims that the safety
of women is ultimately “a basic responsibility of the state,” and that throwing
money at the issues surrounding the security of women in the country is not the
answer. A report was submitted to the finance minister that summed up the
feelings of many women’s groups in the country as well as addressing concerns. In this report it was said that “The lack of
recognition of women’s contribution to the economy and its underestimation are
issues that are central to the increasing discriminatory trends.” This report argued that Women need stronger
laws protecting them in the public settings but that women also need to be
acknowledged as an integral part of society’s functioning and not just pieces to
be cast aside.
Lynne E. Davis
1 March 2013
14:00
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