70 yrs on, are women getting their due?

Today, it is shocking that the representation of women in politics has come down to only 6%. This is in stark contrast to more than double that percentage 20 years ago, and shockingly, even during our hard-fought Independence.

For far too long women have been legislated for, without them truly understanding how government policy actually affects their lives, as most of the legislations are made by men without consulting women.

In the past five years, women have increasingly felt the heat of ill-planned schemes that have either compromised or pushed back women’s rights as crimes against the girl child have risen sharply. 

Is it not ironic that the Nirbhaya Fund of Rs 1000 crores, which was collected by the previous government stands untouched even today?

According to the latest reports, India tops the list as the most dangerous country in the world for crimes against women, with the conviction rate for the same being correspondingly low.

According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data, crime against women saw an increase of 2.9 per cent from 3,29,243 cases in 2015 to 3,38,954 in 2016. Crimes again women from SCs increased 5.5 per cent (from 38,670 cases in 2015 to 40,801 in 2016) and STs by 4.7 per cent (from 6,276 cases from 2015 to 6,568 in 2016).

Such statistics show an alarming trend but the Centre has done nothing to address it.

Much is written about reporting rapes in newspapers. Powerful women journalists have been targeted - once even killed - for speaking their mind, leaving the rest even more insecure.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come up with populist schemes for women. The  Mudra Yojana scheme makes for good political optics but bad economics. A senior SBI official has said, “Most of the applicants don’t have a business plan. 

Also most of these loans are being exploited by unscrupulous managers who  indulge in corruption.” But merely doling out money does not guarantee a successful business.

In my view, for such yojnas to be successful, there ought to be counselling/guidance and workshops for the women of all stratas.  For example, it is unfair to expect a homemaker with limited education and exposure, to understand the nuances of running a business even though she does have an instinctive understanding of how to stretch the budget to make it work for her. 

In most cases, the loan money is given to the husband to use, thereby leaving the woman even more dependent on the man rather than being empowered.

As per the data provided by the Modi government in the Lok Sabha, almost 56% of the total fund for ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme, was spent on advertising and no impact assessment was conducted for the scheme. So, one has no realtime data about  how this scheme has benefited women. 

The government had allocated Rs 684 crore for the programme of which Rs 364.66 crore was spent on advertising and Rs 159.18 crore was distributed to different states and districts. 

It is thus imperative for me to insist on a reservation bill for Women at this day and age - 70 years after our independence. These I believe, are the fundamentals that will culminate in empowering a woman and making her economically independent.

Isn’t it time that happened, when she represents 50% of the country?

The Indian woman has three most fundamental needs to be able to perform successfully in society