Gender Discrimination In India.

 

A couple of years back, the proving Court passed a judgement allowing permanent commission and command positions for women in the armed forces. This was a huge leap in efforts to demolish gender discrimination, but the gap still remains huge. Data from the government shows that as in 2018, there were just 3,653 women in the Armed Forces in comparison to 62,507 men. Although women are now allowed in certain positions in the Air Force and Navy, they are still not allowed in combat positions. Nine nations including U.S., Israel, Germany, Australia, Norway, New Zealand, Canada, France and UK have changed their laws to allow women in combat positions and it would be a great privilege for Indians to belong in the list.

A few reasons we are given why women are not allowed in combat and special forces are basically excuses. They say women have much less physical strength as compared to men but they won't get in the combat if they didn't perform as well as others in the first place. They should be selected because of their hard-work without any discrimination. They never asked for preference over men, just equality. If a woman performs better than a man, she should be selected without a doubt.

Another excuse being that if abducted, women can be tortured in much worse ways than men i.e. they can be sexually assaulted. But don't all of us know that already. If a woman is scared of it, she would never try for the combat. If she does, it means she's fully aware of all kinds of consequences. She knows that it's not just the enemy but even fellow mates who could try and take advantage of her. She knows and she's not scared of it. Then why are they not being allowed into the combat and special forces?

It is because of the orthodox mentality that the authorities carry. As per UNDP report, India ranks 132 out of 187 countries on gender inequality index (GII). India ranks low partially because of its skewed ratio, with only 914 females every 1000 men, according to the govt. data. According to the report, only 29% of Indian women above the age of 15 in 2011 were part of the labour force as compared to 80.7% of men. In Parliament, only 10.9% of lawmakers are women. As per 2016 UNDP report, 200 women died for every 100,000 childbirths and 80% of women didn't have any bank account.

Everyday 39000 girls are forced for early marriage i.e. 27 girls are married a minute. 27% of the girls in India are married before they are even 18, and 7% before the age of 15. That means more than one-fourth of our girls are married before their adults. According to UNICEF, India has the highest absolute number of child brides in the world – 15,509,000.

Shocking because we all thought there were no more child marriages nowadays. The statistics make it all the more real. Then we still proudly say that India is a fast-paced developing country where men and women are treated equally. There still is a lot of work to be done. First being to let children live their childhood peacefully and then letting them live their lives on their own accord. We have to open all opportunities for women, of course after providing with m a detailed list of consequences that they might have to face doing a particular job. Women demand their empowerment, which means that she should be treated equally as men, never to be placed on a higher pedestal. They should be given that much because they deserve just as much as any man.

By: Mahi