CONDITION OF WOMEN IN INDIA AND IMPROVEMENT

"Yatra Naaryastu Pujante,

Ramante Tatra Devtaah !

Yatraitaastu Na Pujyante,

Sarvaastatraa Phalaah Kriyaah !!"

Means, the divins are extremely happy where women are respected, where they are not, all actions are fruitless.

This shloka shows how women were respected and were given equal status as that of men in ancient time but the time has changed now and instead of giving respect, women are badly treated and one will definitely find a news related to harassment, exploitation, discrimination and molestation of women in newspaper on daily basis.

The atrocities that women face today can betterly be understood by the recent example of Buland Shahar tragedy, where a 35 years old women and her 14 year old daughter were gang-raped. This haunting episode lasted over three hours but nobody came to help the cictims through the police station was just 100m away from where incident happened, even the police didn't responded to the phone calls placed to the emergency helpline number. And instead of blamming the police staff, DIG over there is busy in defending the froces.

Buland Shahar incidence is not only the one but there are infinite such cases which horrifies the whole nation. Another recent example of molestation against women is of Bhilwara and Rajasamand district of Rajasthan where women are considered as witch, females residing here are tortured. Pressurized, beat are infinite such cases but again police in these districts is only a silent spectator.

Though, many laws has been made for improving the condition of women in India but at the same time one can't ignore the indifferent nature of government officials, bureaucrats, law makers etc. for taking steps to look whether the laws made exists in paper only or they have been practically implemented or not. For instance, Dowry has been banned in India since 1961 but it is a big irony because though it has banned. India has the highest number of dowry related deaths in the world according to Indian National Crime record Bureau. Not only this, but cases like female foeticide, female infanticide where a bud are very common.

"CONDITION OF A NATION CAN BE VERY WELL JUDGED BY LOOKING AT THE CONDITION OF WOMEN OF THAT COUNTRY" - Jawaher Lal Nehru.

Inspite of the above fact, the status of women in India is very low as compared to men. Males enjoy all the rights right from the birth till the end of their life but on the other hand, females in India are binded by many relationships at every stage of their life. The position of Indian women is fixed for doing household works, cooking and most importantly giving birth to a child, a boy child. Though, females could perform each and every activity that a man can do but then also they are considered as the inferior ones who are meant to stay at home and look after the children.

"It is believed that if a man is educated, a person is educated but if a woman is educated, the whole nation is educated." But again more than half of the population still lives in the superstition that all these sports and education system are not meant for girls. even if the families who send both their girl and the boy child to school then also discrimination prevails as it is often seen that the boy child will be sent to high and reputed school in comparison to the girl child who either will go to the government schools or the local schools nearby.

Women in India on one side are considered as "Devi", "The Goddess" who should be worshiped but on the other hand, they are the one who are raped, they are the one who are molested. Why? On one side of the mirror, they are considered as the "Laxmi", the one who brings in money but on the other side, they are the one who are considered as the liability for the family who will take the money out of the house in the form of dowry. Why such type of Ironies still exist in India? Why it is only the woman who always suffers?

"KITNI SEETA GANGA MA KI GODH MAI DO JATI HAI?

KITNI GEETA RAIL KI PATRI PER SO JAATI HAI?

KITNI GIRI MEENARON SE?

KAUN GINTA HAI INKI SANKHAYA ....

ROZ RANGE AKHBAARON SE?"

To conclude, though India has done a lot to improve the standard, status and safty of woman like introduction of Poxo-ebox, 'she' cabs in state of Kerla, 'good touch, bad touch' awareness in schools and also prohibitition on women's restriction to enter holy places like temples, Dargahs etc. and no doubt these will be continued till it reaches it's peak of goodness but to improve the condition of women in real sense India still needs greater efforts and time, and by that time we can't simply wait for the right government or party to come and take action, it is only 'we', the people of India who can bring the change to make India not only the largest growing economy but also the largest growing country in psychological sence too because if the population of 123 crore people resolves to do somthing then no power of world could stop them.

By. Manisha Choudhary

IAS Aspirants (Astitva IAS Academy)

Under the Guidance of Dr. B. B. Singh