1 Woman rights and safety

THE TRUE SCENARIO OF WOMAN RIGHTS AND SAFETY IN

INDIA

SUBHANGI DEKA

G.N.D.G COMMERCE COLLEGE

GAUHATI UNIVERSITY

ASSAM
2 Woman rights and safety

ABSTRACT

Women are often denied of their basic rights due to misogynistic thinking of the

society. In order to empower woman Dr. B. R Ambedkar has devoted his life to fight

against injustice to women. This article represents the basic scenario of women rights

in India. The constitution of India contains great laws for women rights and safety but

in real life these laws alone cannot protect women from being bullied and harassed.

All the data were collected from secondary source of information. The article

represents the magnitude of woman injustice in India. This article argued that as long

as the society does not change their perception towards women no legislation could

give women equal rights. Empowering woman does not meant to be financially strong

and independent only. It also means to be free, to be treated equally and to be

respected by all. Women will be truly empowered in India that day when they will not

fear to travel alone at night; they will be given with equal opportunity and social value

as men at every aspect of life. This article tries to convey this message with a motive

to make aware the society about the matter and encourage it to follow the footsteps of

Dr. B R Ambedkar.

Keywords: women rights, women safety, empowerment, Gender equality,

constitution, violence, misogynistic.

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Women are the backbone of our society, without them our world might not survive.

That’s why we termed our natural environment as Mother Nature. From being a

mother to a sister, wife, daughter; a woman revolve around us in many ways by

protecting us caring for us. Even though they sacrifice for us a lot, we the society fails

to acknowledge them most of the time. In this patriarchal society, misogynistic

behavior often downgrades value of women.

In the past women were often provided with equal social value as men. If we look into

our Indian culture or Hindu culture, we often found out that the ancient people

worshipped Mother Nature as a reflection of women. But gradually women started to

lose their position in the society and began to consider as nothing more than mere

object of pleasure and other responsibilities. At present if we look into the number of

injustice to woman it is really heartbreaking.

In a country like India where most of the people worship female deities like Goddess

Durga, Maa kaali, Laxmi; the injustice to women is at maximum. This type of

hypocrisy mainly contributes towards degradation of woman’s value.

Today’s news reports include reports relating to women injustice most of the time.

According to data provided by the National Crime Records Bureau (NRCB), India

recorded 88 rape cases every day in the year 2019. Amidst the covid pandemic, the

reports related to violence against women increases day by day in the year 2020. Total

no. of recorded case in the year 2020 was 23,722. Most of the cases were reported in

UP covering a whopping 50% of total cases (11872). It is really shameful that even at

the time of such critical situation there are such criminals who enjoy harassing

women. And most disappointed thing is that there is no strict punishment against such

crime as it takes longer to serve justice to victims in India.

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Nature of cases of injustice to women

2 4% Right to live with dignity Protection of women against

% 2% 1% domestic violance
3 Harassment of married Molestation
% women/ dowry harassment
5% Police apathy against women Rape/ attempt to rape
33%
5% Cyber crime against woman Right to exercise choices in
marriage/ honour crimes
7%
Sexual harassment Dowry death
others
16%
22%

(Source:

Sexual violence against women is spreading widely in India. Indian society is a

patriarchal society at its roots, which encourages men and boys to disrespect and

harass women. All these because of misogynistic thinking of the society, that woman

are lesser than men and in order to tame them, bullying and harassing them is

necessary. Even though we live in a country where we used to worship deities but we

refuse to open our eyes regarding violence against women. This is the sad reality of

woman’s safety and rights in our country.

“I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have

achieved.”—Dr. B R Ambedkar

This quote was given by Dr. B R Ambedkar who was one of the champions leading

woman empowerment in India during the final days of independence. His values were

completely devoted towards progress and equality even at the time of such critical
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changes in the overall political order and system. He was the first law minister of

independent India and chairmen of the constitution drafting committee. He

contributed a lot towards the foundation of modern India and included guidelines

regarding gender equality and women empowerment.

Babasaheb as he was lovingly called by people provided our country with great laws

regarding betterment of women’s lives. He has devoted his life for shaping women’s

rights in the society. Often women were found being harassed by the society mainly

due to caste system as well as inhuman needs to sabotage women’s right to freedom.

Babasaheb often advocated that the society derives its impulsive needs to degrade

women from myths and cultural beliefs, subconsciously twisting such beliefs and

values into more sadistic thinking. If a women were being raped the society will

deliberately avoid her and blame her for enticing such reactions from men.

If a woman is a sex worker, the so called modern society will blame her for polluting

their social values but neither of them will try to understand the reason for such step

taken by the women. This type of thinking encourages crimes like human trafficking,

child trafficking, and child molestation. Babasaheb was strong enough to stood

against society and fight solely on behalf of the sex workers, where the foundation of

the sex work is the castiest nature of the society.

He also worked to protect women under Labour laws, supported a bill granting paid

maternity leave for women working in factories. He also worked for equal citizenship

and women rights to economic development in India.

Now a day’s women empowerment has been promoted at most of the part of the

country. But somehow there are some people who do not want to accept this reality

and continues to harass women. In a society where most of the social values degrade
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women, there must be some legislation and jurisdiction that takes care of women. Our

constitution provided various laws such as-

 The equal remuneration act 1976

 The dowry prohibition act 1961

 The maternity benefit act 1961

 The medical termination of pregnancy act 1971

 The commission of sati (prevention) act 1987

 The prohibition of child marriage act 2006

 The pre conception & pre natal diagnostic techniques ( regulation and

prevention of misuse) act 1994

 The sexual harassment of women at work place (prevention, protection) act

2013

Even though these laws are presented for empowering women, our society keeps

disregarding them openly. Within close doors of their home most of the women are

vulnerable, trying to protect their self-respect, be it in the name of social status or in

the fear of social stigma; women in this pandemic period are more vulnerable than

ever. In this period without proper transportation, communication facilities more

women are being harassed daily.

Some of the cases were so heartbroken that it makes people questioning

themselves-‘are they worthy of being called as most superior class of living beings?”.

What was the fault of that 19 year old Dalit girl in UP who was severely brutalized,

limbs fractured and brutally gang rapped by four upper caste men. It’s because she

was from lower caste and they are from higher caste? More shockingly the police
7 Woman rights and safety

accused the women of lying, that woman who were brutalized and in her death bed;

does she need to be lying?

Babasaheb devoted half of his life to fight against such crimes, drafted the

constitution with a hope to make women empowered in the future but what does he

gain from it? If he would be alive at present and by seeing such cases he will surely be

devastated.

As per the report published in national commission for women, the figures relating

women harassment is likely to be higher because only a small percentage of woman

are strong enough to file a complaint. Most of the victims chose to remain silent all

because of the sadistic thinking of the society who blames the women for enticing

such behavior from men. The violence against women will never stop until and unless

there is a stronger and stricter legislation for such crimes.

The safety of women in our country is always being questioned because most of the

time it is observed that accusers are roaming freely whiles the victim and her family

faces backlash from society. Sometimes they have to grovel through a long process to

receive justice, all because some inhuman people’s heinous crimes.

In true word we all are hypocrites. We chose to close our eyes if someone calls for our

help because we do not want to be dragged into legal procedures or backlash from

others. If this type of thinking continues to take place in our minds then there will be

no safe place for women in our country. We the society loves to make slogans,

demanding women empowerment, safety; all of these only at the social platforms. But

in reality if someone is openly murdering a woman by repeatedly stabbing her in the

middle of the road in broad daylight and passerby people just leave her like that

because that man is her husband. Most of the people just watched the incident from
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afar and input their sadistic thoughts like “she must be dishonest, so she should be

punished”. As long as such perception thrives in our society, no legislation, no

jurisdiction could save women from violence. Women will be at danger all the time.

Babasaheb always fought for women against violence, misogynistic society that

always accuses women and encourages violence against them. The present generation

must follow his footsteps to make a better world for women. The society must work

together to create safe environment for women where our daughter, sister, mother can

walk freely, carrying out their responsibilities without an inch of worry about safety

and danger.

There are so many young ladies and successful women who belong to our society and

contributed to our country and economy. Women like Maya Vishwakarma, Sonal

kapoor, Rukmini Rao, Viji penkoottu; who broke all the stereotypes and fought for

injustice to women. Maya Vishwakarma who is popularly known as “Pad woman of

India” breaking all the taboos manufactures affordable sanitary napkins, which are

given to women in remote areas. Hygienity is also a right for women and they should

not be denied of this.

Rukmini Rao, who established a group named “Saheli”, established in the year 1981,

which helps women from domestic violence, provides them social, economic legal

support. The group also helps women to overcome various issues such as right to

education, prevention of violence etc.

Sonal Kapoor, a young lady leaves her job at 23; only to help women and girl child of

slum and poor areas. She actively fights against child trafficking, child molestation at

this young age. If the society started to show such thinking than there is 100% surety

that women will be safe again.

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Similarly Viji Penkoottu fought against discrimination towards women working at the

malls and shops, where they are denied of basic rights to Hygienity, right to equality.

They too are human beings and it is their right to be treated equally as others.

If more people like these women comes out then there can be surely be an

improvement in our society. Women will be no longer vulnerable. Our legislation

system must be improved also with strict punishment and quicker judgments so that

the criminals get punished and victims get justice. Also it will teach those who have

such heinous intentions, that “bullying women and harassing them will not be

tolerated”.

We can proudly say that our women are safe and invulnerable at that day, when whole

society will start to think this way. Otherwise there will be always a question will

remain that “is our women safe?”

This is the peak time to stop this nonsense. India, it is time to protect our woman,

granting them with equal rights, respect and safety. Let’s move towards Babasaheb’s

footsteps to women empowerment. Empowering them does not mean to make them

financially able but to make them stronger, bolder and braver.

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REFERENCES

 Prakash S (2019, October 13) Ambedkar’s Contribution to the Empowerment

of Women Was Remarkable. Youth Ki awaaz.

https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2019/10/ambedkars-contribution-towards-the-

empowerment-of-women/

 Ramachandran Sudha (2020, October 5) Violence Against Women in India

Must End. Now. The Diplomat. https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/violence-

against-women-in-india-must-end-now/

 Statistical Overview of Complaints (2020).

http://ncwapps.nic.in/frmComp_stat_Overview.aspx

 Barua Ananya (2018, December 31) 10 Brilliant Women Who Smashed

Stereotypes & Empowered Thousands in 2018. The better India.

https://www.thebetterindia.com/168092/india-superwomen-heroes-

wonderwoman-gender-equality-spotlight/

 Pisharody Amla (2020, April 15) Babasaheb Ambedkar: Champion of Women

´s Rights. https://gaurilankeshnews.com/babashaheb-ambedkar-champion-of-

womens-rights/