WOMEN IN SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION: A WORLD VIEW
By Hajnal Kumar
International Women's Day which was celebrated all over the world last-month, is
a suitable occasion for examining 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 ago. 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 give freedom to jailed women, but the
ordinance permitting women to be lashed or stoned for adultery (or for a rape
portrayed as adultery) 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 paedophiles, 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 2001a legislative body, dominated
traditional clerics, vetoed the more.
Women in Islamic societies face great difficulty in seeking divorce, but men are
released from their marriage vows virtually on demand in some places merely by
uttering "I divorce you" three times. Though in most Muslim states divorcees are
entitled to alimony, in Pakistan it lasts only three months, long enough to
ensure the woman is not pregnant.
It Saudi Arabia, the subjugation of women has an official sanction (it took only
Taliban to outdo the Saudis). They are not allowed to drive cars or fly anywhere
without the husband's permission. And remember the very sad incident in Kashmir,
when a fundamentalist group 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 peninsulacan witness women working
hard, but where are they working? In the unorganised sector. An estimate of the
National Commission of Self - employed Women reveals that 94 % of the 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, were won in one stroke by the Indian women. It fulfilled the promise
made many years ago by the national movement 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 schools stands at 38% and female share of
employment in industry and services is a 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 since 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 live 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
Myanmar 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 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's
foeticide, for the rights of the girl child, or for providing basic necessities
for woman in slums. -CNF
(The author is a Hungarian journalist living in New Delhi)