Friday, 17 May, 2024
Way back in 2014, Narendra Modi delivered his first address as Prime Minister from the ramparts of the Red Fort. Two things he said in that speech became both contentious and memorable. The first remark was casually but forcefully addressed to parents
Way back in 2014, Narendra Modi delivered his first address as Prime Minister from the ramparts of the Red Fort. Two things he said in that speech became both contentious and memorable. The first remark was casually but forcefully addressed to parents. He admonished them for not bringing up their sons to learn to respect women. Second and more consequential, he launched the Swachch Bharat scheme to build toilets in every house. One reason he ascribed was how women felt humiliated when being compelled to defecate in the open and also how they became targets of molestation and rape. Many critics chided him for talking about toilets and defecation while delivering an Independence Day speech. But it stuck a chord. Since then, he has launched many schemes like Ujjwala that offers free gas connections and a host of others including Mudra loans that aim to help women become financially independent small entrepreneurs. He has been suitably rewarded in the electoral arena as shown by electoral data where his popularity ratings among women is higher than that of men.
But how substantively has the situation for women in India changed at the ground level? Has there been a genuine movement in the direction of gender equality and justice or is it all rhetoric? The record is mixed. The dramatic decline in open defecation is a reality and the government clams that almost all of India has access to toilets now. The National Family Health Survey of 2021 reveals that open defecation has not been eliminated. But even a drastic decline after decades of neglect is a worthy achievement. Then again, there is sufficient data to show that women have been major beneficiaries of Mudra loans. As per government data, more than 68% of beneficiaries of Mudra loans till 2021 were small and micro women entrepreneurs.
But other data shows India still has a long way to go. A story published in India Tracker on August 14 reveals how female labour force participation has been steadily falling for at least a decade. Safety, work-family life imbalance and lack of opportunities coupled with discrimination are the three major reasons for this unacceptable decline. In what can be described as “feminist” jargon, many men in India still behave as male chauvinistic pigs. The prime minister this “societal disease” while delivering his speech to mark 75 years of independence. A quick survey conducted by C Voter-India Tracker reveals that most Indians think we have a terrible mentality as a society to disrespect women. Overall, three out of every four Indian agreed Indian society suffers from this mentality. Male respondents (71.3%) were not very far behind their female counterparts (76.8%). Surprisingly, while 62.8% of opposition supporters agreed with this, a massive 82.7% of NDA supporters were of the same opinion. Or perhaps not very surprising since supporters of Modi seem to have blind trust in him.
