Women Empowerment. Yeah right!

We say we are progressive. We sat we are open minded. We say we are moving forward. But this progress is selective and limited. Equal rights for women, Women empowerment, Women reservation bill. This still remains a myth in India. These words are empty promises.1996. The Women's reservation bill was proposed in 1996 and it's been 18 long years and this particular bill is still stuck in the parliament. Being held back by the the claws of the legislature. The governments have come and gone, and the minister sitting in the parliament have changed but this bill is still stuck there. The main agenda of the bill is for women to have a certain amount of representation in our parliament, so that even the female population get a fair hearing. But we are far from it.

The other problem is that though we all might discuss it and say it

and nod in support of it, but its not what we practice. It's okay for us to discuss this in our parties and get angry when we read about these things in the newspaper. We are also good at giving unwanted advice and passing comments. But when it comes on to us and the women in our families there is still some discrimination. Not discrimination per say but certain differences. And this is just for the people living in our metro cities. The situation in the rest of India is much worse. Women still, are treated as objects and are not treated equally. Women still have to bear the price of their gender where ever they go. And this is just not about our rights or even opportunities. In our society there still seems to be a certain set of rules or if you prefer "etiquette" that we women are expected to follow always. These aren't told to us explicitly but its understood. And the phrase "Boys will be boys!"adds to this bias against us. It seems as though the boys in our society have free will just because they were born that way and the women are restricted for the very same reason.

 Even in our so called modern families, there are people who hold a school of thought that is biased towards women. They have to know cooking, they have to dress properly, they have to quite and calm and not too outgoing, because apparently that is bad behavior. Haven't you heard people say that those women who dress "indecently" are asking for it and they are victims to eve-teasing. So instead of telling our boys to behave properly we tell our girls to be more cautious. What sort of a society is this. Us women often come across something called the "glass ceiling". This prevents us from progressing and moving forward. This is a deceptive barrier that we all have faced in our lives. And this is what separates us from men. We are stuck beneath it with no way out and the men above are not willing to lend us a hand. This is just sad.