The fight for gender equality

 India has slipped 28 places to rank 140 among 156 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021, becoming the third-worst performer in South Asia. According to the report, India has closed 62.5% of its gender gap. Among India’s neighbours, Bangladesh is ranked at 65, Nepal at 106, Pakistan at 153, Afghanistan at 156, Bhutan at 130, and Sri Lanka at 116, making the region the second-lowest performer on the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). GGGI is based on four parameters: Economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

The world has fared the worst on the economic participation and opportunity sub-index. India has only closed 31.6% of the gap on this sub-index. Interestingly, this gap is not just seen in unskilled/low-skill segments but is equally pronounced in high-skill job segments. There is also a deeper problem. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2018-19, the female labour force participation rates among women aged above 15 years are as low as 26.4% in rural areas and 20.4% in urban areas in India. A 2018 report of the NITI Aayog, which reviewed the performance of states on Sustainable Development Goals, showed all states performed poorly on gender equality.

Both supply and demand factors, economists point out, contribute to the low levels of employment of women — from domestic responsibilities to the lack of demand for their labour to inadequate support infrastructure. There has also been movement out of agriculture into informal and casual jobs. These challenges have now been exacerbated by the pandemic, which is likely to have a scarring effect on women’s future economic opportunities, risking inferior re-employment prospects and a persistent drop in income. Over the years, legal reforms, gender-responsive social protection and public service delivery systems, quotas for women’s representation, and support for women’s movements have made a difference. It is now more important than ever to scale up these gender-positive recovery policies and practices, and provide enabling conditions for women to be employed, including better and safer transport, provision of hostels, and social security. Women’s participation in the economy must improve substantially, as must India’s record on other parameters. The country’s development potential will remain unmet if half its citizens are excluded.

Source: Hindustan Times, 1/04/21

To protect women, challenge patriarchy

 Seldom has the State’s concern to protect one half of its citizens been so high. In Andhra Pradesh, a Disha law. In Maharashtra, a Shakti Bill. And “love jihad” ordinances in three states. All in the name of protecting women.

We should be so reassured. But even as Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was launching a “samman” (respect) programme, explaining how employed women can register at the local thana so that they can be tracked for their own safety, came news of nine men raping a 13-year-old multiple times over a span of a couple of days in Umaria.

India’s endemic rape problem is a matter of concern. Laws passed since 2013 have not flatlined the graph. In nine states, the number of young women who faced sexual violence as children has gone up, finds the latest round of the National Family Health Survey.

Now, Maharashtra’s stringent Shakti Bill, based on Andhra Pradesh’s Disha law, expands the death sentence for rape, but also dilutes the standards of consent, making rape more difficult to prove in courts. An outcry by women activists has led to a review.

So many laws, still no solution. Perhaps because there’s a contradiction here. The contradiction in wanting to protect women but within the decorous folds of patriarchy. We will keep women “safe” as long as they are bound by family structures, even though data on domestic violence and sexual abuse tells us the family is not the safest place.

In Uttar Pradesh (UP), the police have announced they will use artificial intelligence to spot women in “distress”. How is distress defined? How this will work is yet to be revealed. What we do know is that UP subscribes to the idea of the helpless Hindu woman duped by the scheming Muslim man. This is the bedrock of its “love jihad” law that robs adult women of autonomy, an autonomy that the Allahabad High Court and some other courts still defend.

Safety means empowering all women — single, divorced, rebellious — to live as equal citizens. It means respecting women’s choices. Rape stems from male entitlement and the idea that a woman’s consent doesn’t count. You cannot solve it with laws that spring from the same patriarchal mindset.

This mindset is not limited to our legislators. The chief justice of our highest court wants women to stay away from protests, as if we have not been an integral part of movements from Independence and Chipko onwards.

The head of the National Commission of Women (NCW) meets the Maharashtra governor to discuss “love jihad”, even though NCW has no evidence of it. One of its members says a rape and murder in Badaun could have been avoided if the 50-year-old anganwadi worker had not ventured out alone in the evening. Clearly, we are looking at the wrong solutions. A good start is a new vocabulary. Reduce words like “protection” and “respect”. Embrace a more affirmative language of empowerment, independence, rights.

Namita Bhandare writes on gender

Source: Hindustan Times, 22/01/21

It will require concerted efforts to make the workplace inclusive for women scientists in India

 

Ensuring equality without compromising quality of research, by creating an environment of individual freedom and institutional trust, requires concerted effort from policy makers, institutions and individuals.

In a welcome move, the Department of Science and Technology is reportedly drawing up a policy where the proportion of women employed will be considered in ranking a scientific institution. Consistent efforts by individuals and organisations, notably the Indian Academy of Sciences, has exposed the dismal statistics. Indian scientific institutions collectively employ only 15 per cent women even as women form 37 per cent of PhD holders and accounted for 40 per cent of university enrolment in science subjects in 2001, according to the report of the National Task Force for Women in Science. Fast forward to 12 years later, a period that can be considered about one-third of the formal employment period of a scientific career, the Indian National Science Academy had only 5 per cent elected women fellows in their ranks. As ever increasing numbers of women come out of universities and look for opportunities, this policy must aim to prepare institutions to ensure a diverse and inclusive workplace for women in science.

A precipitous drop in the number of women in science happens at the stages following graduation. Juggling professional and domestic responsibilities is only the tip of the iceberg. Building a motivated team and attracting consistent funding are the two main challenges that any young researcher faces. Attending research conferences and presenting papers at national and international meetings is how one gets noticed. Administrative hassles at the workplace, uncertainty of securing a travel fund and help at the home front caring for young children or ageing parents often makes the woman scientist focus on publications since they are perceived as the one objective criterion to judge a scientist. However, scientific ideas grow and take form through interactions, and immersive experiences away from the lab and home help in developing fresh, creative and contemporary projects.

A few structural changes can go a long way in rectifying the inequalities during the early stages of a scientific career. The recent guidelines making creche facilities mandatory at workplaces employing a certain number of women were much needed. A lesson from the experience of starting one such facility is that it would be unaffordable for students and post-doctoral fellows if all the costs were to be borne by the users. By stepping in and providing qualified manpower, the institute where I work ensured that the creche was sustainable, affordable for all and provided employment opportunities to more women. The second major challenge is safe travel, especially if this policy is to percolate beyond the major cities, into suburban towns, where many large educational campuses are built. Prioritising young families for on-campus housing by revamping the current seniority-based system and workplace transport facility in cities is the equivalent of cycles for schoolgirls in remote districts.

The third most important change should be in our approach to conferences. By supporting and rewarding organisers who ensure greater participation of women, we can ensure higher participation and present networking opportunities without the inequalities imposed by the variable practices at different institutes. With growing impetus on securing funds from the industry, special sessions at conferences can provide a platform for floating ideas and understanding the needs of the industry. Women will especially benefit from moving such discussions from alumni networks and informal clubs to the open format of conference sessions.

It is important to note that these measures not just help women but provide a more equitable workplace. The workplace creche, for example, not only supports women but also men who share childcare responsibilities. The childcare leave, like the leave travel concession, if extended to either parent, will prevent women from bearing the brunt of career setbacks. Ironically, many measures conceived to be “women-friendly” can have unintended and undesirable consequences, especially in the short-term. In some institutes, to ensure their safety, women are advised to work only during official hours, while men can access labs any time. Instead of segregating any group out of sight, the best research institutions create spaces for mixing and mingling, ironing out stereotypes and perceptions of being the “other” group.

Another informal practice at many institutes is to avoid hiring couples. This has been a major stumbling block for many scientists who found like-minded partners in their own fields. Often dubbed the “two-body problem”, couples are forced to put one career before another to ensure at least one stable job. My experience has taught me that most fears of couple-hiring are imagined and exaggerated. In fact, these couples are often invisible bridges between the islands that inevitably form in a profession that requires deep specialisation and wide networks in equal parts.

Institutes around the country can benefit from increased mobility of senior academics. A major hurdle for experimentalists is that they are loath to leave facilities that they have built up from scarce resources with time and care. By creating a metric for valuation of such resources, and a channel for inter-institutional mobility, cross-fertilisation of ideas, technical expertise and resources can ensue. Many women find a second opportunity in their fifties. The flexibility to switch career paths with an initial exploratory period followed by the opportunity to make a permanent move could prevent stagnation and create a much-needed flux between academic institutes-government and private centres of learning, research institutes and even the industry.

The new policy should apply to private and government institutes. We have been witnessing an influx of philanthropic funding, entry of foreign institutions and the rapid growth of private institutions in the arena of higher education. If we place the burden of reversing long-standing inequalities and ensuring inclusivity only on government-funded institutions, we are in fact putting them at a great disadvantage in a competitive arena.

If we truly want “inclusivity, equity and diversity” in our scientific institutions, the new policy has to be sensitive to ground level realities. Committees and organisations have to be sensitised and implementation ensured through periodic evaluations of outcomes. Making the data regarding publicly funded projects widely available will allow analysis of factors beyond equality in numbers, by asking deeper questions, like what percentage of funding goes to women scientists at various levels. Poorly thought out and haphazardly implemented policies that focus on mere ratings and rankings can backfire. At least in the early stages, the benefits of such radical changes are also likely to go to the women who are less in need of such measures.

Some turbulence in the short term is inevitable to bring about lasting change, but without scope for self-correction, policies may evolve into entrenched practices that take us away from the intended course. Ensuring equality without compromising quality of research, by creating an environment of individual freedom and institutional trust, requires concerted effort from policy makers, institutions and individuals.

This article first appeared in the print edition on October 6, 2020 under the title “She is a scientist”. The writer is a molecular biologist, working for 15 years at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. Views are personal

Source: Indian Express, 6/10/20

End gender-based discrimination in the Hindu Succession Act

 

The assumptions in HSA that govern the devolution of women’s property are no longer valid

On August 11, the Supreme Court (SC) of India ruled that a daughter has the same rights as a son in an ancestral property under the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, regardless of when the father may have died, which the principle law – the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (HSA) – originally did not grant. The 2005 amendment and the subsequent SC ruling are significant steps towards removing gender-based discrimination in HSA. However, the provisions of HSA which govern the devolution of property of a deceased woman are still firmly rooted in outdated assumptions.

These provisions treat the Hindu joint family, traditionally led by a patriarch and lineage traced through exclusive male relations, as central to all matters of inheritance. Therefore, HSA tries to retain property within the husband’s family as far as possible when a woman dies childless. This results in unfair discrimination against the woman’s natal family. Even when the woman has acquired the property through her skills and efforts, the husband’s natal family has a stronger claim over it than her parents. However, there is no reciprocal provision for the property belonging to the husband.

The notion that the law should preserve property in a Hindu joint family is based on two outdated assumptions. First, that the joint family is the most relevant and important unit of societal organisation among Hindus. Second, that women do not have the wherewithal to acquire and manage their property. Both these assumptions are out of touch with today’s reality.

The joint family is becoming increasingly irrelevant as an institution. According to the Census, the average family size of Hindu households reduced from 5.16 persons per household in 2001 to 4.9 persons per household in 2011. According to the Census, the median family size in urban areas has dropped below four. This is part of a larger trend of reduction in family size over the years and shows just how irrelevant joint families have become. Even the Hindu Code Bills committee expressed the same opinion in its 1944 report. BN Rau, the chair of the committee (and who would later play a pivotal role in drafting the Constitution of India), noted that the institution of a Hindu joint family is outdated and should be abolished.

The assumption that women do not have the capacity to acquire, hold, and manage their property is refuted by examining the socio-economic status of women today. The Hindu Code Bills committee, however, called this argument specious in its report. Proponents of this argument pointed to the low literacy rate among women as a justification. But the Committee refuted it by pointing out that the literacy rates among men were not significantly higher either. Regardless, HSA, as passed by the Parliament, included the problematic provision.

Today, far more women are employed than they were at the time when HSA was enacted. The workforce participation rates for women have increased from 12% in 1971 to 25% in 2011, according to Census figures. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2015-16 reports that 28% of women (between the age of 15-49) own land – either jointly or by themselves – and 37% own a house (jointly or by themselves), 53% of women have savings accounts in banks. They own 21.5% of all proprietary establishments in the country, according to the Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation. Their literacy rate has increased from 9% in 1951 to 65% in 2011. They now represent 46% of the total annual enrolments in higher education, and are 53% of the total post-graduate degrees awarded every year.

This change in the status of women demands a fundamental change in the treatment of their property under the law. While some would argue that this provision only kicks in after their death, the lack of ability to provide for their natal family even after their death vis-a-vis a man’s ability to do the same impacts how women’s overall role is perceived in society.

Further, there are three demographic trends that add to the urgency of this reform. First, according to the Census 2011, there were 49.5 million women in India who were or had been married, and had no surviving children, up from 24 million in 1981. Second, India’s total fertility rate declined from 5.91 in 1960 to 2.51 in 2017, which means that women have fewer children today than they used to in the past. Third, the number of widowed women in India increased from 24 million in 1961 to 43 million in 2011. The increase in the number of widowed women far outstrips the increase in the number of widowed men. This is likely in part because the average life expectancy for women is higher compared to men, and the rates of remarriage for women are far lower. Put together, this means that the pool of women who are widowed and do not have children will likely be higher in the future than it is today. It is this growing pool of women who are, and will continue to be, affected by HSA’s discriminatory provisions.

The assumptions in HSA that govern the devolution of women’s property are no longer valid. We must acknowledge the reality of society and treat women on par with men in all spheres of life, including in matters of property devolution.

Devendra Damle is a researcher with NIPFP

Source: Hindustan Times, 10/09/20

Change the system, not women, for gender parity, writes UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres

Our world is in trouble, and gender equality is a part of the answer. Man-made problems have human-led solutions. Gender equality is a means of redefining and transforming power that will yield benefits for all.

Gender equality offers solutions to some of the most intractable problems of our age.

Everywhere, women are worse off than men — simply because they are women. The reality for women from minorities, older women, those with disabilities, and women migrants and refugees is even worse.

While we have seen enormous progress on women’s rights over recent decades, from the abolition of discriminatory laws to increased numbers of girls in school, we now face a powerful pushback. Legal protections against rape and domestic abuse are being diluted in some countries, while policies that penalise women, from austerity to coercive reproduction, are being introduced in others. Women’s reproductive rights are under threat from all sides.

All this is because gender equality is fundamentally a question of power. Centuries of discrimination and deep-rooted patriarchy have created a gender power gap in our economies, our political systems and our corporations. The evidence is everywhere.

Women are still excluded from the top table, from governments to corporate boards to award ceremonies. Women leaders and public figures face harassment, threats and abuse online and off. The gender pay gap is just a symptom of the gender power gap.

Even neutral data that informs decision-making from urban planning to drug testing is often based on a “default male”; men are seen as standard while women are an exception.

Women and girls also contend with centuries of misogyny and the erasure of their achievements. They are ridiculed as hysterical or hormonal; they are routinely judged on their looks; they are subjected to endless myths and taboos about their natural bodily functions; they are confronted by everyday sexism, mansplaining and victim-blaming.

Take inequality. Women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. The latest research by the World Economic Forum says it will take 257 years to close this gap.

Digital technology is another case in point. The lack of gender balance in universities, start-ups and Silicon Valleys of our world is deeply worrying. These tech hubs are shaping the societies and economies of the future; we cannot allow them to entrench and exacerbate male dominance.

Or take the wars that are ravaging our world. There is a straight line between violence against women, civil oppression and conflict. How a society treats the female half of its population is a significant indicator of how it will treat others. Even in peaceful societies, many women are in deadly danger in their own homes.

There is even a gender gap in our response to the climate crisis. Initiatives to reduce and recycle are overwhelmingly marketed at women, while men are more likely to put their faith in untested technological fixes. And women economists and parliamentarians are more likely than men to support pro-environmental policies.

Finally, political representation is the clearest evidence of the gender power gap. Women are outnumbered by an average of 3 to 1 in parliaments around the world, but their presence is strongly correlated with innovation and investment in health and education. It is no coincidence that the governments that are redefining economic success to include well-being and sustainability are led by women.

Our world is in trouble, and gender equality is a part of the answer. Man-made problems have human-led solutions. Gender equality is a means of redefining and transforming power that will yield benefits for all.

It is time to stop trying to change women, and to start changing the systems that prevent them from achieving their potential.

Antonio Gutteres is secretary-general, United Nations

Source: Hindustan Times, 8/03/2020

Just 24% of students in top schools women

Female scholars number just 24% in 127 institutions of national importance although overall there are more females in eight out of 16 undergraduate and postgraduate programmes on Indian campuses, according to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2018-19. There are more females pursuing science and medicine at undergraduate level, while for BCom, there are 99 females for every 100 males on campus. Also women comfortably outnumber men among those graduating at UG, PG, PG diploma and MPhil level. Female participation is high and has increased sharply at MA, MSc and MCom levels during the last five years. In master’s level, there are more females in science and arts with 62.72% and 61.78% of the total enrolment, respectively. Women made big strides in BCom, BSc & MBBS in 5 yrs Today some of the programmes where the gender gap is significantly in favour of the females are medical (at UG level) where it is 60.6%, Arts at 53.03% and Science at 51% of total enrolment. In master’s level there are more females in Science and Arts with 62.72% and 61.78% of total enrolment respectively. Female participation has been dominant in BA, BEd, BSc nursing, MA, MCom and MSc for past five years. But the bigger stride by women in the last five years has been made in BCom, BSc and MBBS. But what can cause some concern are the figures for the last three years in institutions of national importance which show the numbers for female scholars are more or less static at institutions like AIIMS, IITs, IISERs, NITs and Schools of Planning and Architecture, among others. Females have also a lot of catching up to do in law where enrolment stands at 33.7% and just 28% and 28.86% in BTech and BE, respectively. In MTech, there has been a continuous decline as the number of females per 100 males have dipped from 64 in 2014-15 to 54 in 2018-19. Despite marked improvement from 58 females per 100 males to 75 in MBA courses, and 64 in 2014-15 to 70 in 2018-19 in BCA, the gender gap remains significant. Women fare poorly in overall enrolment in technical education (BE/ BTech) with the bulk of the institutions of importance offering professional technical courses. The biggest gap is at the undergraduate level, where there are 26,736 females as compared to 96,724 males. Similarly at postgraduate level, the number of females is just 12,819 in a population of 50,201. The AISHE data also indicates a shift in preference as increasing number of students opt for professional programmes like management, law, computer applications, pharmacology and medicine, touching a fiveyear high in enrolment. However, traditional engineering and arts programme, as well as BTech/ BE/ MTech enrolment have continued to slide in the last five years. Meanwhile, enrolment numbers continue to decline for the fifth consecutive year for engineering and technology, bachelor in arts. BSc and MA have for the first time in five years registered negative enrolment figures in 2018-19.


Source: Times of India, 24/09/2019

STEM careers in India continue to experience gender gap

Nearly 84 per cent Indians believe STEM jobs are important to the country’s future

As the world faces a skilled workforce gap, the careers in STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) continue to face a gender gap in India, a survey said on Wednesday.

While nearly 84 per cent Indians believe STEM jobs are important to the country’s future, fewer Gen Z respondents said they felt encouraged to pursue a STEM-based career than millennial respondents, said the survey by global technology and engineering company Emerson.

“Half of respondents said STEM careers in India continue to experience a gender gap, with women lagging behind,” the findings showed.

With technology accelerating many industries, the skilled workforce gap is growing. Nearly 87 per cent Indian respondents said they believe companies should do more to train and prepare their STEM workforce.

“As automation and technology become truly ingrained in our workplaces and schools, there’s a growing urgency to prepare the workforce with STEM skills that will be critical to the continued strength of the global economy,” said David N Farr, Chairman and CEO, Emerson.

“We want to lead the charge in making strategic investments that will provide both the current and future workforce with the right skillsets to succeed in one of the many tremendous careers made available through STEM - from software development to new technologies in manufacturing,” Farr added.

There is widespread support of boosting STEM awareness and education --according to 96 per cent Indians, they consider STEM education important to the country’s future.

Despite this universal understanding of the importance of STEM, fewer than half of respondents believe their country is ahead in STEM education.

Creating an environment where everyone is encouraged to pursue STEM can help address this perception in India - and contribute to growing the global STEM workforce, said the survey.

Empowering more qualified workers of both genders to explore a STEM career could have a significant impact on the workforce gap.

Of the women who said they were not encouraged to pursue STEM careers in India, 41 per cent attributed this missed opportunity in the workforce to stereotypes that STEM careers are for men, and 44 per cent highlighted a lack of female role models in the field.

Source: Hindustan Times, 21/08/2019

Just 37% of patients at AIIMS are women

 Gender Bias Less Steep Among Middle-Aged

In a first-of-its-kind study, AIIMS has confirmed what has been known for ages — women face discrimination in access to healthcare. Out of the 23.8 lakh patients who visited the institute in 2016, only 37% were women, reveals the study published recently in British Medical Journal. The study didn’t include patients visiting the obstetrics and gynaecology departments dealing only with women’s issues. Dr Ambuj Roy, the lead author of the study, told TOI that younger and older women were the most neglected and discriminated against. In the middle-age group — 31-44 and 45-59 years — the gender bias was less at 1.5 male patients per female patient and 1.4 male patients per female patient, respectively, said Dr Roy. In the young group — 0-18 and 19-30 years, the bias rose to 1.9 and 2.02, respectively, he added. As per the study, 1.7 male patients per female patient visited AIIMS in the age group of 60 years and above. More than 90% of the patients at AIIMS travel from four states — Delhi, where the hospital is located; Haryana, an adjoining state; Uttar Pradesh, a state slightly away; and Bihar, the farthest from Delhi. The hospital data also shows that increase in distance from the hospital was inversely proportional to the number of women visiting the hospital as compared to men. In 2016, 84,926 women from Bihar visited AIIMS compared to over two lakh men. Compared to this, in Delhi, the gender bias was less with 4.8 lakh female visitors compared to 6.6 lakh males. According to Dr Roy, a professor of cardiology at AIIMS, the findings suggest that local healthcare infrastructure needs to be strengthened to benefit the younger and older women. AIIMS also studied the gender bias among various departments. The doctors found that more men visited the hospital for heart ailment — 1.9 male patients per female patient. This was followed by a skewed sex ratio among patients visiting ENT (1.9 male patients per female patient), emergency medicine (1.8), paediatrics (1.8), eye (1.8), surgery (1.4), skin (1.4), orthopaedics (1.3) and medicine (1.3). Sensitisation on giving women equal priority as well as opportunity to seek treatment is important to end the bias, said doctors. In 2011, another study conducted by AIIMS doctors had shown a similar gender bias among children with congenital heart disease. It revealed that the likelihood of a male child undergoing corrective surgery was 3.5 times higher than that of a female child. Concluding its report, the current study stated, “There is extensive gender discrimination in healthcare access, with the situation worsening for younger and older female patients and those at increasing distances from the referral hospital. This calls for systemic societal and governmental action to correct this gender discrimination.

Source: Times of India, 9/08/2019

Why do women have to conform all the time?

So many of us have felt burdened to become the perfect wife, the perfect daughter-in-law, the perfect mother — because that is what this society expects of its women.

If you are a girl or woman past your 30s in India, chances are a big portion of your childhood memories consists of grown-ups constantly telling you how girls were supposed to sit and walk and talk and sleep and how you were not supposed to indulge in a variety of activities — a list that grew in size as time went by. Someone at some point had decided what a girl’s ideal behaviour was supposed to be and thus every girl was now supposed to act in a manner that would be in line with others’ expectations and earn her the title of “a good girl”. Don’t spend too much time in the sun, don’t stay out late with your friends, dress properly and modestly, don’t attract attention on the streets, don’t go out alone in the evenings — the list went on and on and on. And if you happened to be one of those girls with a mind of her own and who wanted to live life by her own rules, then you were immediately branded a bad girl and a problem that all your relatives now felt they had to play a role in fixing.

How many of us have felt disillusioned and lost? We grew up getting ready to become successful women gainfully employed or running a business and in control of our own lives where we were free to make our own choices. Rather, so many of us felt burdened to become the perfect wife, the perfect daughter-in-law, the perfect mother — because that is what this society expects of you. And if you aren’t all of those, then be prepared to be called out and shamed and bullied openly and loudly. And such shaming and bullying would take various forms — verbally and through judging glances, privately within the house and openly in public, by those closest to us and others we could hardly care about. And we as women have dealt with this phenomenon forever.

With the advent of social media and the way it has permeated our lives, I see a lot more shaming and bullying online these days as people take comfort in hiding behind their screens and are so much quicker to play judge, jury and executioner, when they come across someone who dares to break out of the mould that has been assigned to her. Women across the world are fighting for equal rights, the freedom to make choices for their own bodies, for equal pay in the workplace and so much more, and we can make meaningful progress only if we are able to pull together to support each other and raise each other up. Can we as a society, stop shaming women who refuse to conform to unfair societal norms and choose to celebrate them instead?

And to that girl or woman who chose to break out of that suffocating mould and chose to trailblaze her own path to her own destination, I have nothing but respect and love for her courage and drive. Go be who you want to be and do what you want to do and find your happiness your own way. Because to a growing tribe, you are not a tomboy, ambitious, opinionated, or other such labels. To us, you are a force that is unstoppable!

Source: Hindustan Times, 29/07/2019

The Daughter Disadvantage

Fairer system of parental care would lead to more equality in families.

A few weeks after I was born, my father travelled to Japan for work for a month. My mother packed her bags and baby, and headed to the cool hills of Darjeeling, to the warmth of her mother’s home and to the magic of her love.

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I remember nothing of that time, but in the 25 years since, my maternal grandmother, my nani, has always been there for my mother, my younger brother and me. We saw her during summer vacations. We were nourished on her love and her lamb kebabs, the best in the world.

This special relationship between mothers and daughters, two women actively working on maintaining a relationship, pays huge dividends to relevant grandchildren in terms of food, devotion and love. I have lived that experience. As a daughter, and as a granddaughter.

Yet, despite the strength of this bond, when it comes to practical matters, my maternal grandparents rely more on their son.

world. One where parents have similar expectations from their sons and from their daughters, and divide their time living with children equally between them. In such a world, parents would invest in their daughters to be financially independent and expect support from them, no longer relying only on sons. Daughters-in-law wouldn’t have to forego their relationships with their own mothers. Daughters would have more support from their parents in juggling careers and children. Grandchildren would get the best of all grandparents.

A fairer system of dependence would forge healthier interdependence. I wish that all Indian parents expected more from their daughters.

That, if anything, will help make our families and societies more equal, and ensure that no child in a giant family tree has to miss out on kebabs stuffed with love.

Indian Express, 22/07/2019

Faith and gender justice

Court has upheld equality. Muslim Personal Law Board and devotees of Ayyappa must initiate internal reform.

In a recent television interview, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that while opposition to women’s entry into Sabarimala is a question of tradition, triple talaq is an issue of gender justice. The prime minister has echoed what his party president and other BJP leaders have been saying over the past few months: Sabarimala is an issue of aastha (faith). Surprisingly, however, the Supreme Court’s Shayara Bano judgment (2017) does not talk of gender justice. The court set triple talaq aside because the majority in the five-judge bench found the practice to be un-Islamic — that is, against the faith.

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The prime minister’s sentiments on Sabarimala have been echoed by the RSS chief, VHP leaders and top ministers of the Modi government in the context of the Babri Masjid dispute. Some of them have quite brazenly asked the apex court to decide the property suit expeditiously.

At a time when it seems that religion will play a significant role in the electoral battle of 2019, it is of utmost importance that we understand the meaning of tradition? What is faith? What is gender justice? Are Sabarimala and triple talaq issues of faith/tradition or do they pertain to gender justice? Is it right for the prime minister and others to approve the dissenting opinion of Justice Indu Malhotra in the Sabarimala judgment but go against the dissent by the then Chief Justice of India J S Khehar and Justice Abdul Nazeer in Shayara Bano — the two had argued that the “tradition” of triple divorce is as old as Islam, that is, 1,400 years. The exclusion of women in Sabarimala is not such an ancient tradition and a queen of Travancore is said to have visited the temple as late as 1939.

In fact, the majority in the triple talaq judgment considered freedom of religion nearly absolute. CJI Khehar explicitly held that personal law is included within the freedom of religion and observed that the courts have a duty to protect personal law and are barred from finding fault in it. He went on to hold that personal law is beyond judicial scrutiny. “Triple divorce cannot be faulted either on the ground of public order or health or morality or other fundamental rights,” the-then CJI said. Justice Rohinton Nariman and Justice U U Lalit too accepted that triple talaq is considered sinful and thus cannot be termed as an essential Islamic practice that is entitled to constitutional protection. Sin is essentially a concept of “faith”. Moreover, they struck down the practice as arbitrary. The judges rightly observed that the fundamental nature of Islam will not change if triple divorce is not recognised. Justice Kurian Joseph too said triple divorce is un-Islamic and what is sinful in theology cannot be valid in law.

“What an individual does with his own solitariness” is how the English philosopher Alfred North Whitehead defined religion or faith. To former President S Radhakrishnan, “Religion was a code of ethical rules and the rituals, observances, ceremonies and modes of worship are its outer manifestations.” Thus, whom to worship, how to worship, where to worship and when to worship are all questions of faith or religious tradition. Faith also tells us what is permissible and what is prohibited in certain contexts. Thus, what food is permissible and with whom sexual relations are prohibited too are questions of faith for a believer or a follower of religious tradition. If the intimate relationship between a believing Hanafi (most Indian Muslims are followers of this sect) couple has become sinful — and goes against the tenets of their religion — we cannot, legally speaking, force them to continue in such a relationship. Article 26 gives every religious denomination or any sect thereof the freedom to manage its own affairs in matters of religion.

The argument that since some Muslim countries do not permit triple divorce — therefore triple divorce is not an issue of faith and can be made a criminal offence — is misconceived, as Islamic law is not uniform. It varies from one school (sect) to another. Moreover not recognising triple divorce as a valid form of divorce is one thing and making it a criminal offence is another. After the Supreme Court judgment, there is today near unanimity within experts of Indian Islam on the former point. But most of them are opposed to the criminalisation of triple talaq because divorce is fundamentally a civil matter.

Faiths are all about “beliefs” and these beliefs need not be based, either on rationality or on morality. Reason and empiricism are alien to religions. In fact, all faiths are regressive, exclusionary and discriminatory because their origins date to pre-modern times.

But the Constitution, as a progressive document, gives us the right to have a certain amount of irrationality and blind belief, under the Freedom of Religion (Articles 25-28). By overemphasising “constitutional morality,” the Sabarimala judgment tried to curtail this freedom to irrational beliefs. That led to protests. Justice D Y Chandrachud had described the exclusion of women as untouchability, while delivering the verdict in the Sabarimala case. Many of us thought that he was going too far but the purification of the temple after the entry of two women has proved that there is indeed an element of untouchability in the exclusion of women — this, when the Constitution has explicitly abolished untouchability.

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In the Sabarimala case, the majority struck down the rule that prohibited women from entering the temple as it went against the parent act on places of worship. This Act lays down that all places of worship in Kerala shall be open to all sections of Hindus. The Supreme Court refused to recognise the Ayyappa devotees as members of a distinct Hindu sect. It also refused to extend the Freedom of Religion to gods, thus refuting the primary argument of the Sabarimala trust. The trust had argued that Ayyappa, being a celibate himself, excluded women from his temple. Justice Chandrachud held that deities are not entitled to fundamental rights. The review court may re-examine this claim.

Gender justice is a modern concept to which our Constitution is committed. Freedom of religion is subject to the Right to Equality and that’s why judges have little choice in upholding discriminatory practices. But we should not aim just at formal equality but try to achieve substantive equality. Substantive equality rejects the “sameness doctrine” under which men and women are to be given the same treatment. It rather favours recognition of differences between men and women and advocates differential but just treatment for women.

The distinction between faith and tradition is artificial and gender justice requires reforms in both. The devotees of Ayyappa as well as the Muslim Personal Law Board must appreciate the constitutional vision of gender justice and religions must reform themselves internally. However, the top- down model of reforms will not work as Indians are essentially religious and prefer to go by the opinions of clergy rather than the courts. The Sabarimala protests have yet again proved that courts are ill-equipped to initiate reforms in faiths.

Source: Indian Express, 8/02/2019