Changing Perspectives of Gender Prejudice……

A woman is an ingenious gift and the sensitive art of nature without whom the world is
incomplete. Despite the fact that women constitute almost half of population of world, they are also the largely suffered section in every society. Everything has developed in the contemporary times of globalization, but position of women continues to be astonishing and worse. From times immemorial a woman is treated as a commodity, a slave who is submissive for household, bound to look after the children & to stay indebted to the orders of her spouse without any sigh of relief, even sometimes contrary to her will. To rouse up early in the morning she has to prepare breakfast, drop the children at school, and till the end of day has to endure with domestic labor. Still the reward given to them is-they do not work. It is accredited that women are the honor & prestige of family, but it is very ill-fated that their interests are being looked down in a disheartened and disgraced manner. In case of education she is either totally snubbed or given improper education i.e. to represent her as literate but not educated. Studies divulge that in rural areas a girl is seldom allowed to opt to a job and that too
should be nothing other than a moderate job. In the modern parlance once the girl brings to an end her course of college education, she is abandoned to go out, and reluctantly arrangements for her marriage are commenced. In this way her life & liberty is shortened to the four walls and thus condensed in a well fashioned manner.

The system of relegating the women starts right from her birth. Conventionally in Kashmir, when a newly baby takes birth, first thing being queried is ‘what is the sex of child’, if it is girl child, the head bows down and humiliation is expressed. While as for a male child the blessings, gifts and presents come from everywhere. It is very pity that even father of a girl child introduces himself as ill-starred and heirless. No sooner the girl starts crawling, instead of bringing playing toys, parents start depositing securities for her marriage. When begins to understand the people around her, she is being reminded of her identity. A girl cannot rule, perhaps she has born to be ruled. In the parental home, she follows her parents and is dominated by the brother(s), similarly after marriage trend to follow never gets offshore.

At the intellectual level seminars, debates, conferences and discussions are held to
subsidize this irregularity. Fatefully, this discussion obsoletes until those lunches & suppers,
which take place in such conference halls under the shelter of women empowerment. Irony is that the people who mostly talk about it, become perpetuates of same in one or other way. At large, women empowerment is advocated in the jam-packed courts of law. But experience and study reveal that the gender bias has immanent in these courts too. Even the lawyering of women is discouraged at its best. On the papers every civilized society has drafted a framework for the respect, equality & dignity of women. The constitution of India as well as constitution of J&K consists of principle provisions in terms of Preamble, Fundamental rights, Fundamental duties and directive principles which enshrine and safeguards the rights of women. Per constitutional provisions given within these heads, States are empowered to adopt the measures of positive discrimination in favor of the women, for the mere purpose of intensifying the status of women. However, taking the note of these constitutional
safeguards, on one side it looks that drafting committee has left no leaf unturned to prevent the women from falling prey to the exploitation and violence. But on the other side position at the ground level in honoring these safeguards has always been an outrage, which is more clearly displayed by the heavy increase in day-to-day foul plays like sexual assaults, acid attacks and domestic violence. It looks that ‘we people’ generally being the members of ‘civil society’ are ready to rectify the interest of women, but at individual level we never are ready to fall all over oneself. It shows that our patriarch freedom is intimidated in such spine-chilling and terrible way that it puts no constraints on individuals (men) while they resort to the disgusting acts against this victim (women) folk.

Irrespective of the factual certainty that females contribute in every sector of the state, yet the position of women in our society is deplorable at its best and cruelty against them is at its worst. Till present, women are unable to attain the environment of exactness; where there could be no more teasing and sexual harassments; where there could be respect and dignity for them; and where women could no longer be treated as commodities and shall be free to room in safe and secure way. Alas! Instead of coming out of it, the paradigm of ill-treatment for women has shifted from one form to other. Earlier it was quite informal now it is purely organized. One such illustration is the projection of negative & degrading images of women in the mass media. As of general perception that violence against women in State of Jammu and Kashmir as compared to other parts of India is rarely prevalent. But, continuing heavy armed struggle has affected the lives of whole people in general & women of the Kashmir in particular. It demoralized, degraded & debased the women folk, simultaneously resulted in the issues of half widows, destitute and sexual abuse, which paved the way for their traumatic disorders.
Without stretching & embellishing the words further it is to be concluded that modern scenario does not ask us to educate the educated, or produce the papers to fetch the degrees under the banner of women empowerment. Nor it is time to keep defining theoretically the status of women, moreover it is time to redefine pragmatically what from decades has been incorporated & enacted for the betterment of women.

 (Mashooq Yousuf Malik studies law at School of Legal Studies, Central University of Kashmir.
Feedback at mashooq.law@gmail.com )