So the bill went through! Wow! Nice.
People are wondering on what benefits it has/will have, and what other problems it creates.
What I can see in immediate future, those men who lose their tickets because of this reservation, I am sure they'll prop up their wives/daughters/daughters-in-law to stand for the elections.
Initially, I thought it unfair. But then I changed my mind after reading the statistics. In my real life, I have seen too many educated women who are not as concerned about politics, not as concerned about right-wrong, not as concerned about equity/equality. What I mean by "not as concerned" is, I see too many women who talk when it is just about debating/commenting on others lives, but choose to give in when faced with the situation in practical. So I was wondering, in such a society, where women are not as bothered about politics, is it fair to reserve seats for them? So that the half hearted candidates get through for being 'female', while the struggling I-really-want-to-do-it men fail to get through because they're 'male'? But then I read, that upto 40% of grass root level politicians are women, they feel bullied out of the male-dominated higher levels of politics. So I guess the reservation has a point then.
This thing of "reservation for women" creates a temporary imbalance in society. Indian rural society still follows the norms of joint family wealth distribution. Though the joint family system is fast breaking up, yet, parents think the male child carries forward their responsibilities/culture, while the female child is simply a temporary gift to be looked after & given away to her husband.
In such a society, there is enormous pressure on sons to succeed, and enormous pressure on young ladies to get married. So reservations create a temporary imbalance in that generation, because all of a sudden, parents see their girl child working & earning & not getting married off, parents see their sons not able to get the best jobs because women snatch them away in competition.
But society gradually accepts these changes and realizes that women too should share responsibility of family, women too can carry forward their culture, women are not born just to get married. And that sons too can follow their heart, they needn't just stay pressurized to succeed as per father's wishes, etc.
In that long term way, legislation definitely helps reshape society. And it is for the better, women live better lives in a nuclear family where they have greater control over their life. Of course, nuclear families also means that women end up bearing the burden of responsibilities too. But anyday, women prefer that to the earlier joint families where they had no individual rights, they had to give up all their dreams and conform to the standards set by the joint family, and live in a rigid regulated environment where they couldn't exercise their freedom or build a confident relation with their husband.
Coming to this bill which went through, O my God, I was shocked at how some hooligans in Parliament literally snatched papers from the Vice President, threw them into the air, grabbed at his pen to prevent him from signing.. Those hooligans are so called "Ministers"! If some public rights activist speaks out against the judicial system, they can go to jail for "Contempt of court", but what about these Ministers who were misbehaving right in Parliament? Why are they not punished under "Contempt of Indian Constitution"? This is the boon of coalition politics, where ruffians can rule the roost. All my skepticism for the bill vanished when I saw those male hooligans rioting in Parliament, those bullies who are thirsty for power.
Some parties were opposing the bill, because they wanted reservations for Muslim women too. That is just cheap politics. First of all, there are different categories of underprivileged people: Minorities, Women, Backward castes, Scheduled Castes/Tribes, Disabled, etc.
So why create a sub-reservation for Muslims within the reservation for "Women"? These parties simply aimed at scuttling the entire reservation bill. If minorities issue comes up, the right wing opposition would have refused, the Communist parties would have dithered, there would have been no consensus, those men who don't want any reservation bill would have won under the guise of fighting for Muslim women's rights! I say to such chauvinists, "Arre what will you fight for Muslim women's rights when you don't care about Women's rights in the first place!"
Nice attempt at creation of communal feelings, but nicer that it failed, the bill successfully went through Rajyasabha, after fourteen long years of struggle! I hope they introduce necessary amendments & pass it through Loksabha too.
No comments:
Post a Comment