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OPINION » COMMENT

Published: June 21, 2014 00:50 IST | Updated: June 21, 2014 00:53 IST June 21, 2014

Beginning a new conversation on women

Shamika Ravi Anuradha Sajjanhar

 Modi’s ‘10-point agenda’ in its current form would be significantly hampered if the government does not take a strong look at injusticesagainst women

Riding on the aspirations of the electorate, of which women are a significant share, Narendra Modi’s victory is commonly seen as a vote fordevelopment. But the last few weeks’ horrific reminder of how India publically consumes violence against women, in conjunction with thePrime Minister’s ‘10- point agenda’ for the new government, demonstrates a disturbing lack of policy vision for women’s issues. Morespecifically, it is important to point out the glaring absences in Mr. Modi’s vision. While he has urged us to not engage in ‘psychological analysof rapes but instead prioritise ‘respect’ for women, this rhetoric indicates a feeble understanding of the sustained gross neglect faced by 

 women in India. Their dismal state at present is reflected in the Gender Inequality Index which ranks us at 132 out of 146 countries. How caany country develop while denying equal rights to life and liberty to half its population?

Expanding the discourse

 We start by making a distinction between violence in public and private spaces — intra-household and extra-household injuries. While the tw

exist on a continuum, the rapes in Badaun demonstrate a disturbing need to publically shame, perform and consume acts of brutality against women. On the other hand, intra-household crime and neglect is socially normalised, and the two combined indicate a deeper, embeddedpsyche that cannot be addressed without a multifaceted policy approach. A political discourse on ‘empowering’ women must then becomemuch more than it is now — a rhetoric of protection, justification of male urges and/or occasional lip-service. Indeed, to casually gloss over thstructural nature of our entrenched hierarchical tendencies is only to give them a firmer hold.

In “The Subjection of Women” (1869), John Stuart Mill compared marriage laws to slavery of women and argued, “there remain no legalslaves, save the mistress of every house.” Sadly, nearly 150 years later, this still rings true for Indian women. While crimes against womenhave more than doubled between 1990 and 2011 , close to 40 per cent of these are injuries inflicted by husbands or family members. TheNational Family Health Survey (NFHS)-3 reports that 37 per cent of women who have ever been married have experienced spousal physicaor sexual violence, and 40 per cent have experienced spousal physical, sexual or emotional violence. At present, married women and widowe

 women have a much higher prevalence of violence against them (37 and 38 per cent) than women who have never been married (16 per cenor women whose gauna has not yet taken place (15 per cent). The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, which took effect 2006, includes the prohibition of marital rape and the provision of protection and maintenance orders against husbands and partners who aremotionally, physically or economically abusive. However, a policy approach centred on female agency must also be developed to tackle crim

against women and, in order to do so, the intersection of crimes with intra-household and extra-household bargaining power must be

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