Women and sexual minorities duped – Subject to a state of perpetual oppression.
What they promised:
- “Mahila Samman”
- “Beti Bachao – Beti Padao”
- Importance to women in employment opportunities
- Reservation for women in politics
- Legislation for the development of gender minorities.
What is actually happening:
- Women who bear the primary responsibility of family are under immense pressure due to inflation.
- Due to increasing unemployment and migration, women are experiencing a higher burden of responsibilities.
- Due to immense responsibilities of the family with meagre resources women depriving themselves and malnutrition among them is increasing. India ranks 107th in malnutrition, out of 126 countries globally, according to the nutritional indices.
- Instead of increasing, the women’s participation in the workforce in India is decreasing. With job opportunities shrinking, there is heavy competition even for existing jobs, leading to further marginalization of women.
- Women are increasingly engaged in informal and unorganized work sectors, where they often receive extremely low wages. Even in service-oriented jobs that are predominantly occupied by women, the wages provided by the government are often demeaning, with the average being five thousand rupees per month.
- In the past 10 years, cases of sexual harassment, violence, and abuse against women have increased. While there were 2,28,650 cases reported in 2011, by 2022, the number had risen to 4,28,278 cases. This indicates a significant rise in such incidents.
- According to a study conducted by India Spend, in the last five years, incidents of violence against gender minorities have increased by about four and a half percent.
- Although the announcement on women’s reservation in political institutions has been made, its implementation has been postponed to after 2034… isn’t this also an attempt to deceive women during election time?
- Even as it is opposed by the sexuality minorities, the Transgender Act and Rules has been approved in the legislative assembly.
What are the reasons for this:
- The BJP and Sangh Parivar primarily advocate male dominance. They have a history of opposing even legislations meant to enable women’s rights, such as the “Hindu Code Bill” proposed by Ambedkar. Their ideology asserts that “women should be subordinate to men whose only duty is nurturing and taking care of children.”
- Numerous cases of atrocities perpetrated by the leaders of the BJP against women have emerged. In the Unnao case, six BJP members, including Kuldeep Singh, were involved. In the Kathua case in Kashmir, seven BJP-affiliated individuals were involved in the brutal rape and murder of a child. In the Bilkees Bano case in Gujarat, seven criminals associated with the BJP were found guilty. The case of sexual harassment of female wrestlers by Brij Bhushan Singh is the most recent of these incidents. BJP has defended all of them and publicly supported or even hailed the criminals. In Manipur, even when women were publicly harassed and humiliated, Prime Minister remained silent. Under such circumstances, what do the perpetrators of sexual harassment and crimes against women and sexual minorities need to fear?
- The BJP, after accepting the Women’s Reservation Bill in parliament, and after pretending to implement it under public pressure, revised its stance after the elections, and has ultimately deceived the people by stating that it would be implementing the Bill only after 2034.
- The “Nalsa judgment” that upheld the rights of sexual minorities, has provided clear guidelines to the government. However, instead of implementing it, the government has passed a bill in the parliament and obtained approval for it. It is yet to be passed in the Rajya Sabha. All organizations of sexual minorities oppose this because it demands that gender identity be verified by the government officials. This is a highly demeaning and oppressive position towards the community. Moreover, the bill rejects the community’s right to marriage, to adopt children, and inherit property through succession.
- The BJP, while claiming to speak for the welfare of women and sexual minorities, is actually deceiving them and undermining their lives.
Eddelu Karnataka is an independent civil society platform and campaign.It is not affiliated with any political party. Its soul is the thinkers, writers and artists who are the conscience keepers of the nation and democracy. The strength of Eddelu is the combination of organizations and grassroots movements of farmers, workers, Dalits, students, youth, women, LGBTQIA movemnts etc., who have been working selflessly for the welfare of the people for many decades, from various communities (Dalit, Tribal, Tribal, Backward Classes, Vokalinga, Lingayat, minority communities and other exploited sections) and it is a broad civil society.
