Modern Mona Lisa

Phoolmati is a 45 yr. old proletarian who was married to her husband at 16 yrs. of age. She was brought up in a remote village in Bihar, India, with constant reminders of the fact that she was a girl, her gender placing her at the bottom of the food chain. She was plagued by the constant fear of her unsavory father beating her mother and as a result, by the time she hit puberty, she was too terrified to demur to her father’s wishes. Her father sold her off to a rickshaw puller, who later married her. She conceived her first child, a girl, at 17 yrs. of age. With a constant fear of social ostracism, she maintained the legacy of her parents and married of her own daughter when she was 10. But, she educated her son; single handedly, so that he could earn all the privileges that she could not even dream of.
Phoolmati’s tragic story sums up the life of most women living in rural India.
It would be very easy for a distant spectator to turn a blind eye towards one developing country’s backwardness. But looking through the lens of any ordinary, regular woman, I see a very disturbing image. I see women in Iran who are stoned to death for committing adultery, under the name of Islam. I see women in Africa who are still living in the era of cranial bondage. I see rural women in my own country, India, living their lives like mannequins, robots to their husbands’ lust. When the ignorant few look at women in developed countries like America and Europe and very proudly dismiss the idea of gender inequality, I urge them to consider a much larger population of women who still lead the lives in the bondage of tyrannical customs.
There is a painting of a woman in my drawing room, who stands behind bars, gazing out, looking at a bird flying out of a pinjra, a cage. Her soft, faint features a shocking contrast to the rusted iron she stands behind. When I look at the bold painting, I think to myself, that what we admire as art is actually the hard, coarse reality for many women, who shun the rest of the world and confine themselves to the bricks of their houses, trying to keep pace with their husband’s growing demands. In what way do we, as humans call ourselves the smartest species on earth, if we fail to show any kind of sympathy towards women, who are the givers of life on this earth? Till date, most women living even urban parts of India are obfuscated of their identity, their surnames after marriage. Looking towards the rural parts of the country, I am shocked to see that most women haven’t seen freedom. They are terrorized to the point that they start fearing freedom. Are we talking about a free country? Yes, we are. In fact, we are talking about one the apparently fastest developing countries of the world.
“You can tell the status of a nation, by looking at the condition of its women.”
-Rev. Jawaharlal Nehru, former Prime Minister of India
As Pt. Nehru points out in this vehement statement, a country is represented by the status of its women. An educated woman brings up her children well who further prove to be significant human resources for the country, and it is very obvious, that humans formulate the most powerful resources in any nation, hence, accelerating the progress of a nation. An illiterate woman, on the other hand, would probably just educate her son, so that he could earn for her family, unlike daughters who are given away in matrimony. But people fail to see the larger picture. When you educate a woman, you also educate an entire family. Isn’t that reason enough to educate women? Apparently not, considering that the ratio of secondary school net attendance ratio of male is to female is 30:25 by percentage in West and Central Africa, 55:50 in South Asia and 50:46 in other developing countries.(1)
If we consider the current global political scenario, we would observe a jaded lack of women leaders. Although many would disagree, but women tend to find common grounds to find peaceful solutions to conflicts. Take Japan, for instance, although there is no particular bias against women as far as health care and nutrition is concerned, men are given relatively better opportunities in holding administrative positions in politics as well as business. (2) When the idea of progress is linked to human resources, it will be demeaning to the progress of any country if almost half of its population is given more preference than the other half. How then, can a country progress if all of its human resources are not treated equally?
When it comes to placing blame, one can argue inexorably like Walter Rodney in his book ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ where he argues that the underdevelopment of Africa is due to its exploitation by European colonial powers. (3) His reason for a continent where 34 out of 53 countries are some of the world’s ‘least developed countries’, is a neo colonial government that robbed it of its wealth.(4) But if my opinion counts, I would invariably place blame on the subjugation of its women. Apparently, many would agree. “If you want to develop Africa, develop the leadership of African women”, says Ms. Sokenya Ba, President of a women’s NGO (5). Hounded by under nutrition, war and conflict and the spread of AIDS, women can hardly try to step out and help in the progress of their country. An all round development of women in Africa, would actually point to an all round development of its countries.
When it comes to implementing solutions, one can’t seem to hit the nail on the head. One tends to place blame on the government, the society, religion, and it invariably ends at one state- ignorance. But pondering on solutions here, I feel a very pivotal solution to the subjugation of women by a male dominated society would be to merely try to change the mindset of its citizens. Laws may be implemented, but they fail to reach remote parts of a country that is already labeled as a humanitarian crisis, NGOs may try to help by providing health care facilities, functional literacy, but at the end of the day, it’s the government that restricts such organizations.
Take Africa, for instance, according to me, one way of helping it rise from the permanent label of being underdeveloped, would be the restoration of democracy-not just in name, but also in practice- in the entire continent. A democracy would help secure better and equal health care facilities, more security, which would then facilitate the active participation of women in business as well as politics. Although the world has helped Africa to develop, at an overwhelming scale by excusing all its debts, and while Africa has taken kindly to this benevolence, it still remains in the abysmal shackles of AIDS, terrorism, backwardness and gender bias. At the stake of being repetitive, I would again like to point out that perhaps the most powerful solution to Africa’s apparent state would be to facilitate the participation of its women, who, as plenty instances prove, are the most contributive human resources to any country’s progress. In order to help eradicate gender bias, awareness programs have to be implemented and the government or many NGOs should be able to provide at least functional literacy to women, to help make them self sufficient.
Pondering on such a swiftly developing country like Japan, it is very disturbing and surprising to observe that some of the population is still quite backward and does not offer the same privileges to men as it does to women. Another solution, pivotal for helping women ‘step out’ would be changing the psyche of its citizens. This can be achieved through awareness programs. Although awareness programs are prevalent in almost every part of the world, they fail to reach the most remote and backward villages. As I see it, awareness programs need to be made more powerful and far reaching than they currently are. They help change people’s perspectives towards women and also play a major role in making women aware of their rights.
From the beginning, a sense of pride should be imbibed in girls and they should be brought up with as much unconditional love and freedom as boys are. Girls should be brought up to believe that they are not only creators, but also contributors to a nation’s progress.
As we have amply established, women are great contributors to the society. They can help change the face of any country, if they are provided with the same privileges as men. To achieve this gigantic task, the government has to contribute by facilitating women’s participation through various employment schemes and literacy programs. It can also help by coordinating with various awareness programs set up by NGOs.
Women are perhaps the most integral part of any society. They should be loved and cherished, for they are the givers of life on this earth. To subjugate them or consider them inferior would be demeaning to the mere ideals of any religion or any country’s constitution…

When the ignorant few look at women in developed countries like America and Europe and very proudly dismiss the idea of gender inequality, I urge them to consider a much larger population of women who still lead the lives in the bondage of tyrannical customs.

Notes and Citations:
1: UNICEF Child Info. http://www.childinfo.org/education.html
2: The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen, Penguin Books, India.
3: Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Europe_Underdeveloped_Africa
4: African Demographics: Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa
5: Africa Recovery Briefing Paper: http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/bpaper/maineng.htm