Because SHE is a woman

Call her the Indian prude: she wants equal rights, she wants to work, she doesn't want babies, she loves parties. But it's crucial that we do not let the bleaker issues sink while modernity remains every woman's ever-sparkling diva

Susan Harris Thiruvananthapuram

I will refrain from using phrases of the ilk - 'India shining' and 'Bharat India' - for they only serve to drive the knife in and deepen the chasm. What the chasm is, you choose, from the endless differences that we masquerade as diversity. Some nerve, eh?
Leaps of modernity, that's what we have had. Inconsistent and asymmetrical our development may be, but we have not failed in following modernity with surgical precision (read: cheerleaders). It is at this juncture that we should ponder over the new-wave social movements in India, their goals and purposes.
Climate crisis must be filling everyone's cup these days, but in India, woman's empowerment manages to overwhelm. Call her the Indian prude: she wants equal rights, she wants to work, she doesn't want babies, she loves parties. And if this strikes you as patois of an old woman, appalled by glasnost and perestroika in the society, you are wrong: I'm for it all. But it is very important that we do not let the bleaker and more important issues sink to sediment while modernity remains every woman's ever-sparkling diva.
It is depressing, really. Nothing works here. A six-year-old girl was hauled in to a fire by upper-caste men because she used a road meant only for them. Another Dalit girl was lynched in Itawah. Reports of female infanticides, female foeticides, dowry deaths, rapes never cease. I sometimes wonder what difference education, literacy, et al can make. Though awareness is a germane point, humaneness appears to be a more pertinent one.
Faithful to its merits, I must admit that awareness aims at appealing to the human in us - awareness can cause change. It also tries to eliminate misconceptions and prejudices; it aims at making people realise. Of course, this is on the logical assumption that awareness programmes are well-planned and effective. If they fail to make an impact - they fail - effectively serving no purpose.
In contrast to his earlier condition, a person who is aware is equipped to make a choice, thereby empowering himself. Thus, awareness has a multi-pronged approach imbibing knowledge and making the person know what the choices are. It is when people are not aware of alternative options that they do not change.
Feminism advocates equal rights for women because of the equality between the sexes. I sincerely, genuinely, unequivocally, second this notion but one must realise that the credo of women's empowerment is a little different. A woman who is empowered may not be a feminist, but a feminist almost always is empowered. Women's empowerment needn't necessarily make a woman a fighter for her rights; rather, it gives her choices over which she can exercise her will. It encourages her to see what her life could be. It empowers her to take decisions instead of just obeying. It lets her work than be home. It tells her that her husband doesn't have the right to beat her, she is not his private property.
Obviously, women's empowerment must come before feminism, the latter being the second logical step. But like every other short-term goal India has, feminists argue for feminism and not for women's empowerment, while women all over India suffer - having accepted their suffering. Feminism is certainly very broad-minded but it is like trying to 'own a luxury' when the basic necessity itself is missing.
A woman who is empowered may decide to have kids, raise a family and not go to work. Women's empowerment is about choices you have and knowing that you have choices feminism demands and fights for equality in every aspect and every field. Every woman needs to be empowered but feminism is like a foreign language, which, if you know, gives you an edge!
While we harp about women's empowerment and harangue on starting at the grassroots for effective results (I wish it wouldn't sound like eugenics!), the conspicuous transformation has occurred only in the upper-middle class and elite sections of the society. A testimony, clear enough, that tells us that we can never achieve women's empowerment without eliminating poverty. Rich women are more independent because they have resources to be free. The poor woman is bound by social norms - poverty only pulls her deeper in the bog.
Indeed, women's empowerment will remain a surreal dream as long as the Indian woman is poor and unaware - the former suffocating her and the latter killing her softly.
The writer is a 12th standard student in the Humanities stream in St. Thomas Central School, Thiruvanthapuram.

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