Most poor countries are those which ignore and suppress their women the most! This is a general statement and there exist exceptions on both ends of the spectrum, which are beyond the scope of this post. Societies oppressing women are hypocritical because their men are not only narrow minded but also afraid of the repressed. Fear often leads to exploitation and repression! Those very facts, the talk about empowerment of the feminine race, etc., are insincere enough not to let materialize anything concrete on the ground. The view this as a man-woman issue is divisive, unscientific and faulty.

The matter is simple, communities, nations and other entities which require the services of women to beget need them in equal proportion to men; sustainable and all round growth is impossible if half the population remain unproductive! This is how I look at it, a matter of productivity; every able bodied citizen should contribute equally towards the growth of the entity. Religions have played a major role in promoting a culture of over protectionism towards women, yet ironically, the later are found to be most religious! As an Indian and a South Asian I’ve come across a number of intelligently articulated and fanatic religious and social arguments justifying why women should stay home, not study, not work, etc. Some of these arguments are extremely ridiculous and insulting to nature’s creations while others are amusing and childish. When they say God made women inferior they forget that it also implies, they were born in inferior wombs; when they say women need protection because they are weak the fact that most women in this region are raped and abused even after most cases never getting registered and this is after all the men, culture and religion of this region “protecting” their women! Protectionism is just another instrument of oppression!

The south Asian society as a whole is very immature, corrupt and narrow minded. To be exploited and exploit when and wherever possible, are commonplace here; that is why it’s home for some of the world’s most poor, backward, uneducated, underdeveloped, malnourished and ignorant people on one hand and a few extremely wealthy and powerful on the other! The fruits of the fantastic growth of the Indian economy, for example, are sown by many but ripped by only a handful. This is not always because of bad distribution systems and economic policies but mainly because it is in our culture to let others exploit us; which has been the case for hundreds of years. Women in this region are no exceptions to this!

 When culture becomes an excuse for abuse, as is the case with south Asia and particularly India, it becomes imperative to completely cleanse it out of the system and start afresh; there is nothing to be proud of something so abusive! In order to change culture there has to be a change of mindset. Reservations are far from the solution, they are in fact biased, divisive and anti-democratic ploys. How has sixty years of this divisive policy helped India, how many lives has it improved? Reservation for women is just another political farce basically aimed at now dividing the country even in lines of gender, that all other forms of divisions have been accomplished by now! India is slowly going the Congo way; it will be interesting to follow a civil war torn nuclear power. May be one of my next blogs will discuss that!