Sunday 22 April 2012

GENDER EQUALITY NEED OF THE HOUR IN OUR COUNTRY





GENDER EQUALITY
 NEED OF THE HOUR 
IN OUR COUNTRY



As we all know that female population in the country is almost half the total population, and also women in the family can influence the family to a greater extent, as such women play a decisive role in the many issues, Contribute to the development of the family, village, society, country. As women understand the issues better, especially issues related to females, girls and children. It is very unfortunate to know that in our country nearly 52 % women suffer from anemia, 45 % of the children are malnutricined, over 35 % children’s BMI is below average and India 4th most dangerous place to be born as women with over 100 million people being victims of trafficking, mostly women and girl children, with high rate of female feticide and high rate of infant mortality rate.

Why this is happening in a country like India with rich culture and tradition to respect and worship women like goddess, mother, and sister we need to introspect, should make thorough analysis of various issues related to women and children.

As per the provisional census 2011 reports the child sex ratio in India has dropped to 914 females against 1,000 males the lowest since Independence - Despite a slew of laws to prevent female feticide and schemes to encourage families to have girl child, the ratio has declined from 927 females against 1,000 males in 2001 to 914, which was described as a "matter of grave concern".
The infant mortality rate of 50 per 1000 live births (more in number of females than male) and child (0-4 years) mortality rate at 14.1 (more in rural areas 15.7 as compared to urban areas 8.7 per 1000 births)
It is very unfortunate to mention that most of the state governments are running their welfare schemes and other projects based on the revenue earnings of the liquor excise duty, it is an open secret and the fact that BPL families and the down trodden families are the majority victims of the cheap liquor and liquor in many ways ( especially women and children in the family), as large quantity consumers of the cheap liquor / liquor and major contribution to the state excise is from the BPL and down trodden families only. The state governments spending revenue earning from the liquor for various welfare programmes, other development programmes is nothing but swindling the hard earned money from the down trodden from one hand and pretending giving it from the other hand to them, just for the purpose of vote bank politics, in that implementation of welfare schemes also having lot of pilferage.Liquor and cheap liquor consumption by the earning member of the family especially belong to BPL families plays a vitol role in the overall development of the children, women health in the family.

As per the statistics over 52 % of the women in the country are anemic patents (the percentage in the rural areas is much more than the national average and it is many folds in the women belonging to SC, ST communities compared to other castes), and over 45 % of the children in the country are malnutrition/ under nutritioned (malnutrition, Under nutrition includes both protein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. Undernourishment not only affects physical appearance and energy levels, but also directly affects many aspects of the children’s mental functions, growth and development which have adverse effects on children’s ability to learn and process information and grow into adults that are able to be productive and contributing members of society. Undernourishment also impairs immune function leaving them more susceptible to infection., Various factors contribute towards a high malnutrition rate but poverty, ignorance, faulty infant and child-feeding practices are the primary causes,) and over 35 % of the children and youth in the country are having sub standard/ below average BMI (body mass index) which is  less than 18.5, with more cases in the rural areas  mostly belonging to the BPL, Down trodden families belonging to SC, ST, BC, Minority and Economically backward people of other castes.

Also it is the fact that as a large number of population more than 100 million people (around 10% of Indian population) in India are over-nourished, over nutrician is consuming either too much calories or the wrong types of calories such as saturated fat, trans-fat or highly refined sugar which leads to  obesity and many other chronic diseases.

Children's nutritional status is also expected to be influenced by mother’s educational attainment. Children whose mothers are non-literate are about slightly more likely to be severely underweight as compared to children whose mothers have ten or more years of schooling. (Children of mothers with ten or more years of education are 27% underweight while 45% of those with mothers who cannot read are underweight).

One of the most important issue in the country facing by the girl children and women today is the lack of adequate toilet facilities, especially for women at all places. It is acute need to create toilets facility for all,  with separate toilet facility for females, maintaining  all toilets hygienically, always keep them in usable condition every time, 24/7 throughout the year at all places starting from educational institutions like schools, colleges, universities, in all offices, commercial establishments, public utility places including religious establishments adequately, proportionately (based on the strength of the students male and female, on the strength of the employees in the office, number of footsteps in the commercial areas, religious establishments) and ensuring to get maintained them in hygienic condition especially in the government run educational institutions, more specifically at primary and secondary schools in the country which are numbering over 7.67 lakh schools at the primary level and over 2.74 lakh schools at the upper primary level  spread in all states and union territories, with 90.2 per cent primary and 72.2 per cent upper primary schools managed either by Government or by local bodies. It is a fact that majority of the studies/reports indicate that majority of the school dropouts are girl children only, more drop outs are from schools run by government, with an estimate of around 76 lack girl children are out of school only due to lack of toilet facilities, and also around 30 % of the children who are studying are leaving the school after lunch hour leading to poor results in the education, mostly in rural areas due to lack of toilets facility for the girl child or due to un hygienic, un useable toilets conditions of the existing toilet facilities. This situation is very acute in the co-education schools. Also the studied indicate the girl child who are continuing their studies in spite of these miserable condition of lack of toilets or un usable toilets are mostly are under weight, to their age and having below average body mass index (BMI), because of the reason that if they fear to take food sufficiently, as they take more food need to drink more water, thus they cannot control the urination in the school, to avoid this situation they are consuming less food. Also recent studies indicate that due to the lack of toilets / un hygienic toilets in various places from offices to  public places, especially in educational institutions the girl children, female teachers and females in other places are controlling/holding the urinals for long hours leading to many health complications/deceases in the females from  urinary tract infection to cancers, to diabetics to many other disorders/ deceases in the long run in the later stage in the life effecting their heath causing a severe physical and mental stain to the individual, the family and the society.

Also it is important issue women facing in India is breast cancer, Indian women are suffering with breast cancer are growing in number every day, over 60 thousand women dying due to breast cancer in India(Western lifestyle, increased consumption of fat products, obesity, late marriages, delayed child bearing and less number of children being conceived, , higher hormone levels, late age of menopause, smoking, alcohol and economic status leading to reduced breastfeeding are all believed to be behind this increased risk of breast cancer).with an estimate of 2 lack cases per annum increase.
The very serious  issue faced by women in the country is trafficking, as a high level of female infanticide and sex trafficking make India the fourth most dangerous country in which to be born a woman with an estimate of over 100 million people in India are prone to trafficking, the human trafficking, which involves 100 million Indians, mostly women and girls according to official numbers, female feticide and female infanticide, which are both massive." The Central Bureau of Investigation estimated that in 2009, about 80% of trafficking took place within the country and that there were some 3 million prostitutes, of which about 40% were children. A survey compiled by the Thomson Reuters Foundation pointed the then Home Secretary GOI, Madhukar Gupta's estimate in 2009 that 100 million people, mostly women and girls, were involved in trafficking in India that year.(India is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labour (“The forced labor of millions of its citizens constitutes India’s largest trafficking problem,” “Men, women, and children in debt bondage are forced to work in industries such as brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, and embroidery factories.”)  and commercial sexual exploitation, Women and girls are trafficked within the country for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage especially in those areas where the sex ratio is highly skewed in favor of men. Children are subjected to forced labor as factory workers, domestic servants, beggars, and agriculture workers, and have been used as armed combatants by some terrorists and insurgent groups. Indian women are trafficked to the Middle-East for commercial sexual exploitation. There are also victims of labor trafficking among the laks of Indians who heavily migrate willingly every year to the Middle East and Europe for work as domestic servants and low-skilled laborers. In some cases, such workers are the victims of fraudulent recruitment practices that lead them directly into situations of forced labor, including debt bondage; in other cases, high debts incurred to pay recruitment fees leave them vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous employers in the destination countries, where some are subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude, including non-payment of wages, restrictions on movement, unlawful withholding of passports, and physical or sexual abuse, these are due to mainly corrupt officials indirectly encouraging the by failing in implementing the existing laws to prevent this barbaric acts) In order to prevent trafficking need  educate the women from being a target to the trafficking mafia, discourage them from going as labour to other countries, educate them about the travel abroad, regulating the tour operators, regulating the overseas recruitment agencies, obtaining the passport, visa, work permit in consultation with the ministry of external affairs and ministry of overseas affairs. Also need to destroy the red light areas in all districts/areas in India with the help of police and society. An estimate of around 3 lack girls are missing in our country and  majority of them are pushed into flush trade, an estimate of over 3.5 million females are in forced flush trade in India, majority of them are from BPL families and belonging to backward districts and majority of them belong to Scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and minorities, Nearly 50 per cent are from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and 12 to 27 per cent from Other Backward Classes (DWCD 1998).Trafficking is become an organized crime run by mafias, just the anti trafficking wing with name sake few officials in every district is not at all sufficient, what is requires is a strong force like anti terror force with stringent laws and punishments for the traffickers as well as the government officials lenient or having hand in this barbaric act due to corruption, is very necessary to save our children, girl child and women from this barbaric and brutal acts. Many young girls belong to the BPL families are lured with good jobs/livelihood in other states/ abroad or people trapped in love with marriage promise, and sold it to the prostitution rockets in other states/ countries. Those who are trapped are virtually living dead and are being raped repeatedly every day several times (on an average of 6 times) (various reports indicate up to 18 forms of violence faced by women trafficked for prostitution. They may be starved, locked up in a dark room, beaten, burnt with cigarette butts, bound, forced to drink, strangled, stabbed or killed for not trading their bodies. The women face threats of torture and physical abuse, even their families are not spared, and they may be murdered if they do not cooperate), when the so called mahila netas, mahila organization make hue and cry for any single rape incidence occurring in any metro city or state capital or any place if the victim come daringly, openly and lodge complaint. Why cannot these mahila leaders, mahila organizations fight for all the several lakhs of young girls and young women who are being trapped in the trafficking and being raped every day several times?

Also women are being treated as commodities in all the advertisements just to attract the eye balls , even in men’s related products and in some commercial goods advertisements showing women Also the film are literally playing spoil sport role in spoiling the youth of the country,  degrading the respect for the women, by exhibiting double meaning and exhibiting women in very awkward and voluptuous positions in the name of called item songs, and songs projecting women in semi nude out fits, sceneries in vulgar gestures for attracting the audience naming this vulgar act of showing the females as glamorous, by the producers and directors by justifying them self’s that the situation in the story demands, how far a traditional society should  accept this vulgar acts of minute section of elite, upper echelons of the society, so called celebrities, creating a degraded and declined moral values in the society for their self centered selfish acts and benefit out of this for their own luxuries at the cost of traditions, values and morals, should be censored even though the actor/actress may not exhibit any sign of  objection for showing herself in such gestures for the fear of losing the opportunities, for the sake of monitory benefits, by attracting people to watch the films. (Because of these, the curiosity among youth being on the rise, tempting them to repeated the acts leading to watching of pornography, pre martial sex, drug abuse, etc) 

Advocating development and westernization means not to portray the women in the semi nude and voluptuous clothing naming it as fashion and glamour, should be condemned in all forms. It is very necessary and ideal to promote the freedom for the girl child and women to have the choice of food, choice of clothing, choice of education, financial freedom, choice of everything in life that are acceptable to majority of the society in the country as a whole (including the rural and urban population) preserving, promoting our age old traditions and customs which are up holding the respect for women.

Also the so called fashions shows, glamour shows and that were being promoted by the upper echelons of the society comprising of celebrities, socialites’ and leaders possessing the characteristics of celebrities. (Less than 0.1% of the population of the country) As these shows are creating a maniac in the country spoiling the youth who are gen-next (over 70 % of the population of the country) making their mindset filled with equating the entertainment means just film songs and live shows of songs , fashion shows in all events of public gatherings as a result there is certainly  rape cases against women are on raise party due to the provoking vulgar seans in the movies (mostly the so called item numbers with dirty dances, partly to blame media / news channels  for promoting / exhibiting in media as well, for increase in TRP/viewership ratings.. but strangely if the same daces are performed  by some section of females in rural areas and small towns on stages for to earn lively hood for their families due to poverty, bearing the shame, keeping their self respect aside.. are being portrayed by the media and society as  indecency and vulgar, offence, how can one justice for poor and one justice for the elite ? is not truly double standards  for promoting, accepting the form of live shows at almost all the major functions and events? Of course whether it is urban or rural these shows should be banned.

Also the small screen i.e television serials portaging women as villains’ and venomous persons degrading the respect for women in the society. As many of the researches clearly indicate the addiction of women towards such venomous and envious serials creating a psychological disorders in the women thus effecting the whole family at large, for the benefit produces and few artists, lacks and corers of women and Indian families are being affected.

In addition completely banning the so called reality shows, especially banning the publicity of porn stars by the reality shows as well as the publicity by the media causing curiosity to the youth and children, who are later getting addicted to porn, in order to save our culture and tradition and children and youth not becoming perverted, ruining their lives as more than 20 % of the advanced mobile phone users are watching pornography in the phones Pornography and terrorism related websites  should be blocked  in order to ensure that our youth will be grow in a culture atmosphere, preserve the traditions and culture of our country, contribute their talent and energies in a progressive development, (as surveys indicate indicate almost 38 % of the children (47 % boys and 29 % girls) and youth are watching pornography in the late night due to  access of internet at home and also at cyber cafes in day time (major revenue earning for majority of cyber cafes is allowing its users to surf the prone by not blocking  the porn sites), ruining their future and life,  by addicting to the porn , as a result there is an increases in pre martial sex/ under age sex (as per the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare-A quarter to a third of India’s young people indulge in premarital-sex. (17% among schoolchildren; 33% among young working class, 17.4 years is the average age for first sex for boys and 18.2 for girls in India. With 60% of them had sex rarely or sometimes; 14% frequently with 3-4% had multiple partners and 50% of females and 45% males never used a condom.) As such the girls are becoming lesbians, raise in live in relationships (even tough supreme court did not find fault for this act terming it as “right to live under article 21” by  stating that a man and woman living together without marriage cannot be construed as an offence.), one of the reason for late marriages in urban areas and working class youth, also  due to perverted ness of the partners who are addicted to the porn leading to increase in number of marriages not being consumed, increase in domestic violence against traditional women, increase in divorce cases etc) Also the blocking of pornography will certainly lead to downward trend of the crime rate against children, especially girl child, females. India with over 70 % of its population being youth it is very necessary to prevent this porn, to save and preserve our tradition and culture.
India being the nation with the largest number of child laborers in the world. In India majority of children work in industries, such as cracker making, diamond polishing, glass, brass-ware, carpet weaving, bangle making, lock making and mica cutting to name a few. The child labors endure miserable and difficult lives. They earn little and struggle to make enough to feed themselves and their families. They do not go to school; more than half of them are unable to learn the barest skills of literacy. Poverty is one of the main reasons behind this phenomenon. The unrelenting poverty forces the parents to push their young children in all forms of hazardous occupations. Child labor is a source of income for poor families, a profit making human machines for the employers as they pay very less for the child labour. They provide help in household enterprises or of household chores in order to free adult household members for economic activity elsewhere. In some cases, the study found that a child's income accounted for between 34 and 37 percent of the total household income. In India the emergence of child labor is also because of unsustainable systems of landholding in agricultural areas and caste system in the rural areas. Bonded labour refers to the phenomenon of children working in conditions of servitude in order to pay their debts. The debt that binds them to their employer is incurred not by the children themselves but by their parent. The creditors cum employers offer these loans to destitute parents in an effort to secure the labor of these children. The arrangements between the parents and contracting agents are usually informal and unwritten. The number of years required to pay off such a loan is indeterminate.
It is very true unless the political power exists for women proportionate to their population (at least 33% reservation for women) the issues related to women cannot be fixed / resolved. Although women play important role in deciding whom to be in the power to rule in the electoral politics, surprisingly there are very few women representatives in the political system from assembly to parliament.

As of now only 11% women members in Lok Saba (only 60 out of 543), and 10.7 % women members  in Rajya Sabha (24 out of 240), India raking 105 in the world in terms of women’s representation in the legislative system, even countries like  Pakistan, Bangladesh are way ahead in this regard with better ranking.

Also to mention here that majority of the women representatives in India are either wife, daughter, and daughter-in-law of some sitting or former male leaders only, as such such women leaders do not have much voice except being titular heads being the proxies of their male family members. It is very evident from various reports that the entire management of the territory where women representatives exist was done by  their men and hardly there is any real development for women in those territories,  their exist very few women members who do belong to this category. So the mahila organizations should put positive pressure on political parties so that more women will get opportunity to get into politics and acquire political power.

In order to fix / resolve the issues mentioned, gender quality is necessary in the all areas especially in political system. As women are better communicators and also only women can understand their gender issues better and also common women can freely share their feelings and issues with women in politics  a better way, with political power, will certainly able to create awareness, create better facilities, educate all other the women for better heath care, for improvement of living standards,  bring pressure on  governments for creation of laws which have fixed time frame for delivering justice in women related crimes, eradication of trafficking by making trafficking a double life imprisonment or capital punishment with laws of traffic prevention more stringent than anti terror laws, and partners & pimps in the prostitution should get life imprisonment, with rape victim/ trafficking victim having the choice recommending for impose of live imprisonment or capital punishment for the offender. Also most important thing is to have financial freedom for women, better way is to start with mandatory fifty percentage reservations for women in employment opportunities both in government and private establishments at all levels (lower, middle and higher). This should be implemented in phased manner (over a period of 10 years as maximum limit to ensure the organizations having 50 % female members at all levels.).There should a Gender Equality Tax with levy of over 20 % of the total salary bill of the organization (organisations with two employees like a small shop to organisations with several lack employees like railways) for not maintaining the 50 % gender equality. This amount should be utilized for the purpose of creation of better facilities for women and child development. Also it should be mandatory that all firms, all companies,  NGO's, all Trusts whether running on profit or non-profit should have mandatory 50 % of the members as women to get registration.  It is also a fact that organizations/ enterprises headed by and run by women are very successful, are functioning effectively and efficiently compared to male leading the organizations. Also it should be mandatory that all welfare scheme benefits to all sections of people extended by central government or state government should be directly credited to the bank accounts of the women in that family. Hope apart from the girl children, women, all men who has respect for the mother, respect for sister, respect for wife, respect for daughters will certainly appreciate and support this noble cause.

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JAI HIND 

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