Acche din for women of India - Myth or reality ?

A few incidents that happened across the past few weeks across India prompts me to think that we the Indian society are the biggest hypocrites of all. The incidents that I am talking about are the abduction and assault of a leading malayalam actor in Kerala, molestation of tiny tots in a pre-school in Bangalore and finally the Gurmehar Kaur incident in Delhi. All this struck me when I watched a TV Ad of Century Ply. What's the connection you may wonder. The Ad says 'sab sahe mast rahe' and I realized that this is what the Indian society expects of its women. Take all that comes and keep quiet, don't speak out. Thankfully in all 3 cases, speak out we did.

 It’s a different matter that I do not subscribe to Gurmehar's views. If anything, it may be otherwise.  No one willingly goes to war and what happened in Kargil is history and known to all. But, I think she has the right to make and speak her opinion and so did everyone else who responded to her.  After all, freedom of speech is equally applicable to all. My objection in the whole episode was to the rape threats that she got. It is as if that is the ultimate kind of punishment being handed out to women so they fall in line!!!!! This is just not done and shows the true misogynistic mentality of the men who did it.  This is the only reason why I linked this episode with the other incidents.

Safety and respect of women and children are a mere lip service in this country. Our movies extol showing women in a bad light and they make crores, no censor board issues there. Society teaches us to discriminate right from the womb, throughout life to the funeral pyre. It's as if women should be born with a guideline book on how to behave in each and every situation, the dos and the don’ts. And god forbid, if you cannot fall in line, then you will be branded. Sundar, susheel is the expectation still........And this is the reason why so many of us women have such a tough time ‘fitting in’.

Every time a woman gets attacked we make all the right noises and our netas promise hazaar things till next time come.......And then the story repeats.... Truth is no one is bothered, because as a society we are misogynistic. After all the hullaboola did Nirbhaya get justice and how many years down are we? I thought the case was fast tracked, but her parents are still waiting for the justice every single day. How many such others does this system have to answer for?  People get caught, they go out on bail, cases run for years, the rich and powerful manage to twist things around and ultimately we women bear the brunt of it all.

But speak out we must till one day the society and the system takes note and decides to change for better. I still hope that we will surely have a better India for our daughters, that we can still teach our men to respect women, and that women can still find their due place in the Indian society. We should just have the will power to ensure that no violence against women will ever be tolerated. All such cases should be treated on priority and justice should be served swiftly without harassing the victims through years of court hearing forcing them to relive the ordeal and trauma. The Government has to ensure this at any cost if they wish to provide the confidence to women that this country still respects them. And for God's sake, please don't blame the dress, the time, the culture and most of all the character.


I thank the PM for beti bachao, beti padao campaign. It’s a beginning, but bachaane ke saath saath izzat karna bhi sikhaa do please. So what we need PMji is a #izzat karna seekho campaign that should be undertaken in every school and college in this country and oh yes let’s not forget our homes please. It’s not just charity that begins at home !!!!!!