November 9, 2004 ☼ Public Policy
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
Icons abound. Indian women have risen to positions of power, prominence and influence — a prime minister, a fighter-pilot, a new-economy CEO, a international top-cop, sundry Miss Universes, Miss Worlds, even a Booker prize-winning terrorist-sympathising rebel of all causes. But their millions of ordinary counterparts are trapped in an incomplete freedom. They have and use their right to vote, they have and use their access to education, they have and use the opportunities created by India’s economic growth — but they still dont think its completely safe to take a stroll down the road, unaccompanied, even in broad daylight.
Discrimination of women in India carries on unhindered irrespective of caste, class or religion. The traditional preference for the male child has meant that illegal sex determination tests, resulting in foeticide or infanticide, are as common in urban areas among educated people as in rural, illiterate families. Violence against women, in the form of eve-teasing, rape, wife-beating and dowry deaths, has shown no signs of abating even as the country takes the great economic leap in an increasingly globalised world.[HT]
Its not as if there are no laws to protect women — there probably are one too many. It is the application of those laws that leaves everything to be desired.
If you would like to share or comment on this, please discuss it on my GitHub
Previous © Copyright 2003-2024. Nitin Pai. All Rights Reserved.