| Challenges
to change |
 |
Has
the status of women changed much in the country during the
last few decades? Has it been for the better, or worse? Browsing
through a new study on women of West Bengal in the last thirty
years, Ranjita Biswas gets a mixed feeling.
The US government has recently warned that
unless India did something about curbing the human trafficking
in women and children, the country could face economic sanctions.
The apprehension of major international funding agencies taking
note could make the government sit up, though the problem
has been too glaring not to be noticed so far.
Among the ‘big
markets’ identified for women used for prostitution is
Kolkata. Basanti Bera, 40, of Sonagachi, the city’s largest
red-light area counters, “So? What’s new about it?”
Basanti was kidnapped and sold to the brothel at the age of
12. She is one of the thousands in the steady flow of girls
lured into the city from the districts by promises of work,
or simply kidnapped by touts.
Elsewhere in the city,
another story of suffering unfolds. A woman living on the
footpath with a brood of children, sends her eight year old
daughter to work as a domestic servant; the poor girl is mauled
by the pet dog when the lady of the house is away. The incident
creates an uproar, but media focus and high octave protests
around the hospitalised girl dies down as the mother refuses
to charge the employer and announces that she would not hesitate
to send her daughter to work again. Who is to comment whether
the mother is inhuman or not?
On a day when the poor
rural women get a free health check-up at a care centre run
by an NGO on the southern fringe of Kolkata, the place is
choc-a bloc with women, their eyes pale, the bones sticking
out. It does not need a physician to understand that they
suffer from severe malnutrition.
The question naturally arises, has nothing
changed in the past years? Have more than two decades of Left
rule made no difference to lives of millions of women in the
state? As in other regions of the country, the answer cannot
be a simple yes or no. There are areas of hope, and areas
of despair too, perhaps more of the latter. For instance,
violence against women has increased manifold in West Bengal.
Hardly a day passes without a news item about rape, or killing,
or dowry death appearing in the media. In February this year,
there were 12 reports of such violence in as many days. More
alarmingly, the age bar of rape victims has been dropping
by the day. Why has the situation deteriorated such? A new
extensive study The Changing Status of Women in West Bengal
(1970- 2000): The Challenge Ahead (Sage publications) throws
some light but leaves many questions unanswered.
Jasodhara Bagchi, chairperson of the West
Bengal Commission for Women, which undertook the project,
agrees that violence against women in the state has been on
the rise but feels that it is more a case of ‘visible
violence’. There is more media exposure, and the empowerment
of the women conversely has resulted in more women coming
forward to protest and complain to the authorities. As for
dowry death, Bagchi opines that rising consumerism has definitely
added to greed and more pressure on the girl’s family.
For the record, dowry deaths, according to the study, went
up from 80 in 1995 to 269 in 2000. “Dowry has now spread
to all communities and both the urban and rural poor are subjected
to social pressures that make them give ‘dowry’
beyond their means” points out the chapter “ Law
and violence against women.”
This only reflects that the overall social
reality overwhelms political idealism or other optimistic
indicators in a society like ours. Otherwise, why should Kerala,
often showcased as a model with high female literacy and high
male-female sex ratio, be showing alarming rise in dowry,
and violence thereof? Or take Bangalore, the sophisticated
IT capital, which has one of the highest rates of suicide
cases mainly due to dowry harassment. And West Bengal too,
which though showing an upward trend in life expectancy at
birth, the child sex ratio still shows a disturbing decline
in the 0-6 years age group. Son preference still prevails,
and girls are sold to prostitution by close relatives. If
this be the scenario, as the study shows, the state of tribal
women is even worse, segregated to a corner by the mainstream
society. The tragic case of Chuni Kotal is reflective of that
reality. She was the first woman from the backward Lodha tribe
to graduate. She fought starvation, poverty and many adversities
to achieve her goal but even finding a job as a superintendent
in a girls’ hostel did not get rid of her stigma. Her
attempt to get a post-graduate degree did not materialise
as a male professor persecuted her constantly for her social
status , she was also a victim of internal politics in the
institute. At last, even this hardy girl gave up and committed
suicide in 1992.
The study does throw up patches of
brightness in the gloomy scenario - more women participating
in the public domain through the Panchayati raj, an increase
in the number of school-going girls (though many drop out
mid-way), etc. But more important are the policy recommendations
which need looking into for an improvement of the situation.
Recommendations on health and nutrition, higher education,
economic empowerment , law and violence, etc. which are valid
not only for West Bengal but for other states as well. For,
it’s often the case of: we are in the same boat, sister!
|
