Why Does India Get a Pass on Women's Rights?

Why Does India Get a Pass on Women’s Rights?

Copyright 2013 by
Bill Rayburn

Rape happens.

Everywhere.

In India, it is actually used as a correctional tool. Most acts of rape do not even get reported in India. There is shame for the victim, and the courts, exclusively male, rarely if ever convict the accused. A woman’s behavior or clothing is often portrayed as encouragement to the attack.

Mostly this occurs in more rural settings in the country, away from the financial and commercial centers. But not so recently.

And the country has risen, almost as one, to object. The woman was gang-raped by a group of inebriated men on a bus, brutalized with a foreign object, and died days later.

My take: ”It’s about fucking time, India.”

Their women’s rights record is abominable. No other way to put it. Sure, the Saudis and the Arabs and much of the Muslim world are also horrifically out of step with the times when it comes to equality for women, but they are increasingly being called out on their anachronistic, troglodytic Stone Age outlook.

India has pretty much gotten a pass. When we Americans think of human rights violators and, unfortunately they number more than one might think, we go after China, North Korea, Afghanistan, to name a few. India does not get lumped into that mix of oppressors. Why?

Is it because they are such a mover and shaker in the technology world? More and more technology is beginning to rule the world. But is that world turning a blind eye to the fact that factions of India oppress half its population? Oppression, though a heinous word, doesn’t have nearly the bite that ‘rape’ does, but that ultimate act of violence and hatred is under the umbrella of oppression and is, of course, a most powerful tool in keeping women controlled.

Consider this:

Indians' Professional Presence in Silicon Valley

• Silicon Valley's Indians represent a "very highly educated" community. 98 % of Thaw's respondents arrive in Silicon Valley with an undergraduate degree, and 78 % have attained "some form of post-graduate qualification".

• 1990 census information indicates that "Indians made up 23 percent of the region’s Asian-born engineers".

• 28,520 Asian Indians work in Silicon Valley as of 1999.

• 82% of the Indian migrants work in high-technology fields.

• Indian CEOs lead 16,598 individuals of 774 Silicon Valley firms in 1998.

• America's Indian population "numbers about one million, and its median family income ranks among the highest in the nation".

Indians have been and continue to be serious players in the continually growing and even booming technological world. Should that obfuscate what goes on back in their homeland, simply because they come to America and achieve a higher education and financial and professional success?

The abuses are systemic and there will probably be strong resistance to change from the mostly male hierarchy in India.

So what.

Resistance to change from tyrants and well-disguised oligarchies has been overcome throughout history. There are many people in India today who believe that the country that prides itself on being the world’s largest democracy is really ruled by a small coterie of powerful people (men).

It was actually quite heartening to read that many of the recent protests in India were heavily populated by males.

That’s what is known as a start.