Gender parity an illusion

Your lordly editorial, 'Women still far from being equals' (July 17), addressed the continued low profile of women on postulation of Madras High Court's landmark judgment in a molestation case recently, which must candidly create a change in patriarchal society and the governments too need to render all kinds of succour in order to treat the womanhood on par with its opposite gender.

As effervescently asserted, women are always second-rated citizens from Vedic times till date despite the highest encomiums poured on them by politicians, professors, doctors, poets and all varieties of menfolk. But in reality, it is forever opposite of what is said. Character assignation has become a national sport in India. It is afraid in the given circumstances, each succeeding generation will be observed plummeting lower and lower to its predecessor in morals and patriotic fervour. The finest example lingering for decades is 30 per cent reservation to women in peoples' houses.

Myriad molestations on tiny tots to aged women are hitting the columns of newspapers. Young unmarried girls are falling prey to philanders' chicanery allurements. Our scriptural texts audibly profess that mother is God-sent. She sacrifices anything for her progeny. Mother of Abdul Kalam served all rotis to him as he was hungry and had to fast. Such mothers still exist and will be there in all ages. Courts always and cannot take up allow hapless women. It is husbands' responsibility as they tied the knot amid reverberating hymns.

We can say India is independent when women can walk midnight on the road, said Mahatma Gandhi and it is an unfulfilled dream. Rajaji also said, "The bravest person is not the soldier who goes to fight, but an young girl who leaves her parents after marriage to live with unknown people for the rest of her life."

N Ramalakshmi, Secunderabad

Change of heart key to gender justice

This has reference to your editorial on, 'Women still far from being equals' (July, 17). Gender parity still remains a challenge for women of today in this male dominated society. Women, the weaker sex as they are called, face many challenges from all quarters of their exposure in this male dominated society. A right to safety and peace at home, and a job outside, do not suffice to solve the woes of today's women. Really, women are not safe at home. A woman gets threats from her in-laws and relatives at home in one form or the other. Sexual torture and dowry harassment cases are on the rise. The less said about the domestic violence that happened in the midst of the pandemic, the better. Their daily survival in life is a real challenge for them. Less said about the sufferings of the physically challenged women in this society the better.

A Beijing Declaration had laid out a new vision and new mission to create a world that would honour, respect, and reward women in 1996. But more than 25 years later, women are yet to see the light of the day. Women are treated as second-class citizens in the society. Right from getting equal wages to have a say in making laws, they stand discriminated. Moreover, women are seen as objects of sex.

Sexual abuse at the place of work is really killing the fairer sex. The crime graph against women increases towards north. The conviction rate is not commensurate to the crime committed. Laws are not women-friendly. They are politically, economically and sexually exploited. In our country the 33% women's reservation bill is still to see the light of the day after seven decades of free rule. This is pathetic. Society should shed this discrimination against women. Women should be treated with respect and equals as their counterpart men. Women should get good and free education. They should have a say in law making. They need economical empowerment. In all the fields of human activity their equal participation should be ensured by law. A change in the heart and a concerted effort by men to respect their counterpart women is the only solution. It is the need of the hour.

Sravana Ramachandran, Chennai.