Fundamental rights
"Is a right something that must be provided for or something that is simply not taken away ?"
-Amartya Sen
The Fundamental Rights are defined as basic human freedoms which every Indian citizen has the right to enjoy for a proper and harmonious development of personality. But are we actually having them or are they just theoretical fundamental rules to prevent further arguments against basic human necessities ? What use are the rights put to without being provided the necessary amenities to utilize them?
1. We have a Right to equality, we all know that. Most of us must've studied in out 5th or 6th grade that all are equal in the eyes of law, is that enough?
MY LOST SISTERS
I took this pledge that states that India is my country, all Indians are my brothers and sisters… 10 months a year for 12 consecutive years of education. I don’t know about brothers but by this time you would’ve understood what I am beginning to say. It’s about the millions of sisters of India and the world that I’ve lost.Just between 1986 and 2001 because of foetal sex determination done by unethical medical
professionals 5 million girls have been eliminated. Sadly enough it’s only increasing day by day. Did the child have a right to live…sure it did. Our constitution guaranteed it. Did it get the right? Do you think it could’ve walked to the court and got it’s right back?My mum wakes up before sunrise and starts cooking then she finishes the other household chores like dusting the house( thankfully we have a maid to assist her in cleaning the dishes, sweeping and mopping the house, washing clothes which by the way she used to do it herself before i was born) and then she goes to office works the day off comes back and cooks again. How cool!? Aren't the female population of India gifted to have such understanding men who allow the women to attend offices?
I’m bone-tired of feeling sorry for the women suffering from their own ignorance, from domestic
violence, dowries, cruel, ungrateful treatment, unaccounted household services and so on and so forth and so much more forth. My deepest condolences to the broken spirits and lost lives. And it’s time we felt angry instead of being sorry, high-time we intervened and took what belongs to us and help others realize their capabilities too.
For all that freedom, pursuit of happiness, liberty and equality we have been given but never provided for, those fundamental rights of Indian constitution that stare at us for help while the social realities rebuke them and all that mind that went into drain while making them because its team mate known as implementation stood as a failure through time…my deepest sigh.“The one thing that doesnot abide by majority is a person’s conscience” –Atticus Finch.
We mustn’t get too used to ignoring and accepting mistakes thinking we’re not wronged or that we’re wronged just a little… we live in a society that moves in unpredictable circles. Unless we stand up for what we believe in noone else is going to stand up for us.
12 comments:
even brothers suffer..if Female Feticide..is not stopped! we will regret for our empty arms like mine...!! :-(
im glad you think so.
yes! you're right. the equality has just become paperwork. i still dont realise why males are given such a preference when all the barriers that divide the two sexes have gradually dissolved.
Loved your post darl!!!
This is so true and I do really appreciate the way you have presented your insight. Indeed, this had made me think for a while as of what could be the root cause of all this happening.
According to my understanding, when it comes to the lost sisters, poverty could have played a major role and then comes the illiteracy, politics.
The other mentioned domestic violence, dowries and unaccounted household services could be because of the so called culture, tradition and caste system which works against equality by enforcing domination.
Now, what makes it real tough to eradicate this poverty?
Our government has such a poor and corrupted system where we do not have anything like "Minimum Wage Per Hour". For instance in US, the minimum Wage Per Hour is 7+ dollars. So, if a person works 40 hrs a week, he can earn at least $1100 per month. But, this is not the case in India. The labor get paid very low and mostly it is either on a day or monthly basis. This creates a high granularity of poverty in India.
Dowries and caste system vary state by state and unfortunately our Andhra Pradesh stands number one in terms of dowries and caste stigma. I guess this would decline with the increase in literacy.
No matter how worst the situation is, we can always make a step forward to make the world a better place. Now the million dollar question remains to be "In which direction are we supposed to move?"
There isn't a direction we can move, because moving in one direction would mean pushing people towards that direction which is a violation of free thought and individulality.
And even that way, India can't become rich. It isn't enough to provide everyone even the basic necessities. The only resource we have in India..in enormous abundance is human resource, i think we need to use that to improve living standards to a few. The rest who suffer, will suffer, the best anyone can do about the world is little unless anyone turns out into everyone.
And by the way, i dont think poverty as the root cause to gender inequity. Then Arab and Iran world would've been a bliss.
Well, I don't mean there is only one direction.(May be I was not able to convey it properly. Let me try to put it in different words) There are many paths for us to solve a problem step by step. So, I was asking "What kind of initiative do you want to take?"
I still do believe that poverty + dowry will be the root cause (In India) because, this makes a poor family to think that a girl will be a burden in future.
Go thru the link
http://www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html
"The bias against females in India is related to the fact that "Sons are called upon to provide the income; they are the ones who do most of the work in the fields. In this way sons are looked to as a type of insurance. With this perspective, it becomes clearer that the high value given to males decreases the value given to females." (Marina Porras, "Female Infanticide and Foeticide".) The problem is also intimately tied to the institution of dowry, in which the family of a prospective bride must pay enormous sums of money to the family in which the woman will live after marriage. Though formally outlawed, the institution is still pervasive. "The combination of dowry and wedding expenses usually add up to more than a million rupees ([US] $35,000). In India the average civil servant earns about 100,000 rupees ($3,500) a year. Given these figures combined with the low status of women, it seems not so illogical that the poorer Indian families would want only male children." (Porras, "Female Infanticide and Foeticide".) Murders of women whose families are deemed to have paid insufficient dowry have become increasingly common, and receive separate case-study treatment on this site."
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Poverty can lead to any situation. There are times where poor families in India used to convert one of their sons into a eunuch so that they could overcome poverty.
" Often, eunuchs also doubled as part of the King's court of advisers.[10][11]
As a result of the number of high-status job openings available for eunuchs, poor families often converted one of their sons into a eunuch and had him work in the imperial palaces to create a steady source of revenue for the family and ensure a comfortable lifestyle for the son."
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunuch
If not the root cause, poverty do have a great influence in gender inequity.
I'd think of it as ignorance, but yes, poverty does lead to ignorance in the long run.
But i'd like to say provision of education and financial stability to women is a more viable solution than removal of poverty, which is more a source of economic inequity resulting in inequities of all kinds.
All in all,
To reduce poverty we need to change the world which is ineffective.
And hence, keeping our aim, a viable solution to the problem..female education and provision of a stable income source is better.
And man, real cool info.
I think poverty is the root cause for gender inequity.even though a female child manages to come out of the mother's womb,she is sent to work but not to school coz of poverty.so i think the first thing to be done is to eradicate poverty.
i dint read your blog till now coz of mere laziness.i regret that action of mine now.good work!
I don't know when i got over my feminism..but somehow i did. I want to delete this post but i won't for the sole reason "COMMENTS MAN!!"
My only post with a double digit no. of comments had to be one, i'd regret. Sad. since i never followed up on fundamental rights thing, the title is wrong, and i think the 'equal pay for equal work' is a rubbish poster..please..they do get it, and if they don't it means..they're unable to physically render the output needed, that makes the pay undeserving.
Still, somehow, this one almost feels, honest.
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