The first movie I watched in 2020 was Deepika’s Chhapaak in the most beautiful auditorium of my college which I do miss at times now. Though keeping aside the pleasantries, I found the movie to be quite disturbing then. I obviously knew these things happen but for that duration of the movie however short it was, they became a part of the immediate reality of my society. Also, I will have to agree with what I just described as disturbing to me is in no measure a comparison to these harsh realities people actually have to face. How such heinous crimes still keep happening?
A few months later, I heard about the Hathras rape case that caught the media frenzy. The details of that horrifying incident are a shame to this society from those men to anyone who would back off from not fighting for a woman’s rights. No more than a few days ago, one more case from Hathras is in news. Crimes against women in India saw a 7 percent increase from 2018 to 2019 according to a statistics published last year and yet not to forget, there are so many cases that never make it to the police stations.
Ironically, my first movie of 2021 was the Malayalam movie “The Great Indian Kitchen” which I somehow managed to watch with English subtitles. The movie was solely about the story it portrayed. How in so many households till date, women are treated as second citizens after men. As if the life within the bounds of household was the first nature to them, as if they did not deserve the respect after all they do and go through. According to the Census 2011, out of total 243.9 million households in India, there are 179.7 million rural households. The story of this movie might resonate with maybe around 90 percent of these rural households and still even a lot many urban families too.
Talking about a more recent issue, the Chief Justice of India asks the guilty if he would marry his minor rape victim. Are we really living in the 21st century world where we could expect such a statement from the highest authority of law in the country. How can the idea of ordering the victim to a lifetime of disrespect even be a thinkable prospect. Supreme Court of India is considered to be one of the most powerful courts in the world for a matter of fact but statements like these are a shock to anybody who believes in the equality of genders.
Our society has become a place where even the good initiatives can turn into failed policies that serve the very purpose they stood against. For instance a recent one, Kamal Hasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam(MNM) will be contesting the upcoming Tamil Nadu state elections. It promises on its manifesto to acknowledge the household work done by women by paying them a monthly renumeration. However, good this initiative is in its spirit, there are many of us who would agree that this on the other hand can cause more misery to women. Women willing to work outside their households would be advised or at times forced to stay within the confines of household chores then in the wake of a monthly wage . This initiative reinforces the traditional concept of men as providers for the house and women as the ones to take care of the domestic affairs.
I don’t think I have known a single woman whom I have come to know closely in my twenty-two years, who has never felt discriminated. There are women who still have better than so many but have also faced casual sexism somewhere or the other at some point in their lives. Well, I will wrap it up here with yet another pop culture reference from Jane Eyre, a book that was written in 1847 by Charlotte Bronte. Jane has talked about things which people in our society still fail to acknowledge. “Women are supposed to be very calm generally but women feel just as men feel. They have as much soul as them and full as much heart.”
Happy International Women’s day people. Here’s to hoping we raise not only strong daughters but educate sons to value and respect women. Hope this becomes a part of the ever-growing larger reality of our society.
