Page 113 - Magazine 22-23 Qty.cdr

English Articles
Prof. Prajakta S. Raut

“She (woman) watched with bewilderment and then increasingly with more and more anger, the violence done to her

body and soul and violence done to the earth. Her soft and tender body was programmed into a baby – making machine
and was treated by MAN as an object for his use and abuse. Her sexuality was appropriated and she became a thing to be
prostituted, to be trafficked and sold; or to be used as a military weapon or to be raped and violated just anywhere on the
street, in a police station and even in the apparent security of the home. Her womb was colonized and her reproductive
rights were taken away from her; the same technology that had rendered some women barren was used to manipulate her
body to produce children artificially- the assumption being that it is her obligation to bear children and until she did so,
she is incomplete.” 7 (Gnanadason: 75)

The Continuing Grim Reality in Twenty-first Century India:
Marginalisation of women and their continuing subordination is the grim reality even today. At one level, women are
idealized as mothers and protected as sisters, but as wives they are battered and even burnt if they do not carry to their
husband's home enough dowry in ready cash, gold ornaments, household goods and sometimes even a flat or a car. This
discrimination is rampant even among the educated middle class where most women today go out to earn a second
income. A daughter's birth is still usually unwelcome and the traditional blessing for a new bride, or a pregnant woman is

“May you be the Mother of Sons". Some families, however, do not rely on such blessings alone and harness modern
medical technology for sex determination of the foetus being carried by the woman and without a prick of conscience
may abort it if it is a female foetus. This high- tech female foeticide is but a ghastly angle to the age -old practice of female
infanticide.

Conclusion:
The inferior status of women is a stain on any society. This becomes more painful in a country which was effectively and
successfully led by a strong woman. Social reforms take a long time to materialize. Legal provisions always have some
loopholes. What is needed is a social awakening in the sense 'to be born a woman does not mean to be born into servitude'

or for that matter, a woman, too, is a human being with flesh and blood. Her opinion, too, is to be considered. She is not a
Barbie doll to be bought or sold. Her sacrifice in domestic affairs is to be acknowledged as a responsible home- maker.
In the light of the above discussion, it is crystal clear that patriarchy is literally a stumbling block in attaining equality, the

very corner stone of our Constitution. On one hand, we are camouflaging the image of our country as a future world
power, while on the other hand the maladies of female foeticide, dowry deaths and 'Honour Killing' are still running
rampant to taint the reputation of a shining India. Above all, man and woman both are the wheels of the same chariot. The
absence of one of them will definitely cause an imbalance. The words of Swami Vivekanand are to be aptly quoted:
“There is no change for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved, it is not, possible for a bird to

fly on only one wing.”8 (Sharma: 138)
One can definitely wield the fair sword of democracy against the pervasive spade of patriarchy. After all, 'Can man be free
if woman be a slave?'

101 “We are here to add what we can to life, not only to get what we can from life.” (William Osler)

HINDUJA HORIZONS 2022 -2023