Fate of a Woman

If I had gone for an opening like "In a country where we have countless Goddesses who we worship, violence on women is nothing new", you might have considered it a banality, but isn't it more disgraceful that such statements which should be drawing immediate attentions are rather a reality of our world which don't startle us anymore. We do empathize with the victims for a brief moment when we hear about such incidents but soon forget about it. I'm not trying to blame anyone here for such an attitude of ours but I would surely call for us to think about it and introspect. What would it take, for the nation as a whole, to unite against woman abuse and make sincere efforts to combat it, not just on paper but in practical? If you were guessing that i was going to provide a solution here, I'm sorry to disappoint.

For the record, the domestic violence complaints rose to a 10 year high in the period of March to May 2020. That means when the whole nation was under lockdown, our women were struggling not just with COVID-19 but with us (men and other women) as well. Before you criticize me for using us in the above line, I would like to make it clear that it surely isn't aliens that are bothering our women, rather it's people among us only who are making things worse for them. Now, back to the statistics, despite such massive rise in the number of complaints, it's claimed that 86% of the victims never sought help and 77% didn't even mention about it to anyone. It was only in the cases where women suffered both physical and sexual violence that they came out more to report about the incidents, whereas they considered it safe keeping it to themselves if they suffered only either of the two violences.

Be it the police stations or the hospitals or their own houses, we have heard about such heinous crimes from everywhere. So it's evident the evil has made its place almost everywhere in our community making things difficult for our women who try to live a normal fear free life.

If you have been following the news, you must have heard about the likes of Jacinda Ardern (PM of New Zealand) and Shailaja Teacher (Minister of Health and Social Welfare of Kerela) who have shown how women, if given the chance, could ensure our triumph in any adverse situation. But then again, it all boils down to whether we are willing to give these women a fair share of opportunities or not. Women who constitute a high fraction of staff in the healthcare services, who are majorly responsible for caring for their family and the community at large would be able to fare better if they are provided more opportunities with the leadership levels as well.