Gender war, yet to be won

Gender war, yet to be won

V.R. Krishna Iyer

The move to create a U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, named U.N. Women, is a major stride for humankind.

Whether you believe in god or not, every effect must have a cause. Out of nothing, nothing comes: ex nihilo nihil fit. Any creation must have a creator: call him Brahman, God, Allah the Merciful... God is everywhere and in everything. As the philosopher Arthur Young said, god sleeps in the mineral, wakes in the vegetable, walks in the animal, flies in the bird and thinks in man. This critical awareness is unique to human beings, gives them the power to identify themselves with creativity and universal consciousness. Call it omnipresent infinity through absolute power present universally and ubiquitously. The vedic seer's universal vision of existence does not discriminate.

Walt Whitman wrote: “… [A] leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars. And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren, and the tree toad is a chef-d'oeuvre for the highest, And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven.” Indeed, the deepest waters and the summit skies are made sublime by the same divine wonder.

Jesus described this infinite wonder the kingdom of god and made it the universal truth: “The Kingdom of God is within you,” he told humanity. The upanishads called it Advaita Brahman. Islam stands for peace, purity, submission. Every human being finds a celestial essence in cosmic brotherhood, whatever his or her religion. So he is all-merciful. The vedic vision is absolute unity in creation. Brahman is not plurality of gods but one god — Advaita.

So, whatever be your religion we have but one god, the awakened over the supreme wonder as the Buddha. The Buddha did not preach. God believed in truth and non-violence — the Enlightened One, a Hindu avatar. So I am a Brahmin, a spark of Brahman. Thus I am a Christian with Jesus' vision, and also Islam's single brotherhood credo. This profound unitary global glory is the foundation of Indian constitutional-cultural-theological secularism. Ignorant of this deeper spiritual core, those who set off religious acrimony and communalism forget the quintessence of secularism. Vulgar religious rivalry violates sublime secularism.

We discriminate between man and woman and consider the latter to be inferior. No man is born without a woman. There are some biological differences but they do not warrant basic discrimination. Man, woman and child are humanity in unity.

This sublime, supreme truth of divinity has led the United Nations to found a gender wonder. It seeks to give a stronger voice to the notionally illusory weaker sex. They are equal in terms of their potency. The queen on the throne is no less than the king can be. Indira Gandhi was as powerful as her father was before her. So too the spiritual-temporal jurisprudence of peer sex power.

The U.N General Assembly on July 2, 2010 voted unanimously to create a U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, named U.N. Women (UNW). The new entity is meant to accelerate progress in meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide. It aims to create a new vibrant ethos, a valiant instrument to accelerate gender equality and women's empowerment, bring to a close discriminatory disparity, according to a U.N. statement. UNW brings four U.N bodies dealing with gender issues under one umbrella. It is meant to be an egalitarian organ.

With the creation of UNW, the egalitarian gender jurisprudence is affirmed unanimously. Hopefully, a grand transformation is under way now that it has come into being. A man or a woman can be vibrantly one. But, give woman nuclear weapons, and she will bomb as terribly as a man will.

Every faculty in the cerebral power is equal across genders. But this militant equality has yet to become a social reality. Indian culture accepts the wealthy and the ‘illthy', the rich and the indigent, equally in its epics. Egalite is writ large in constitutional print. Currently in Indian politics a few women are right at the top, such as Sonia Gandhi and Mayawati. But in Parliament, the judiciary and the executive, or in the professions, have women gained gender equality? It is a war yet to be won.

The U.N. resolution has called for the appointment of an Under-Secretary-General to head the UNW, and the establishment of an executive board to provide intergovernmental support to and supervision of its operation. All public institutions must aid this process.

This move must be radically supported by every country. India should not lag behind. It is a shame that the Indian Parliament does not yet have one-third composition of women members. In the judiciary, too, women are obscure. India should have at least a third of all judges coming from the humblest among women. Then social justice will become gentler, more compassionate and real.

Equal roles

Women are not domestic slaves to be sold for a dowry and beaten up by alcoholic husbands. They are equal and eligible to wield public power. Women can be economically independent and be the guardians of minor children under the law.

More women should come into the police department, for one. They are generally less corrupt and harsh than many of their male counterparts, less violent in handling persons in custody, kinder to women offenders and juveniles. We need more police women in high positions, just as we need successful women District Collectors, Chief Secretaries and Chief Justices.

Women, awake, arise and make every political party include equal gender justice as a policy in their manifesto. In the matter of C.B. Muthamma, who was the first woman to join the Indian Foreign Service, I had condemned statutory gender discrimination resorted to by the Union government.

A women's code to deal with special requirements for gender development calls for special institutions. The right to be born healthy must be guarded for the girl. In education, sports, conjugal life, maternal facilities, old age maintenance, the law has to show special concern. This writer once presented a fair and comprehensive women's code, prepared by a committee appointed by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. But there has been no legislation in this regard yet. Public pressure is needed to make the code a law. India has promises to keep for gender justice. A Ministry for gender justice is essential.

UNICEF made me chairman of a committee to prepare a children's code since the Government of India had failed to produce a statute under the International Children's Convention. Margaret Alva, a Minister under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, appointed me chairman of a panel to prepare a report on the maladies facing women kept in custody. In both these cases the committees drafted exemplary codes and presented them to the Central government. But the story ended there: the reports were not implemented.

Many gender-oriented reforms in jurisprudence were recommended by the Kerala Law Reforms Commission, of which this writer was the Chairman. The Bills are progressive and will transform society if implemented. But there has not been any movement on this front.

The unanimous U.N resolution for the creation of the UNW was a great day for world womanhood, indeed all of humankind. All thinking persons will greet the decision. Gender power will gain strength as humanity becomes aware that sans mother there is no man. When I advocate the development of womanhood I really argue for the cause of humanity as a whole.

[tweetmeme only_single="false"]

It's a woman's world

It's a woman's world

KANKANA BASU

Women have been portrayed in a variety of ways in Hindi cinema over the years. While some actors rejoiced in author-backed sensitive roles, others were confined to a fleeting appearance in a male-dominated film. KANKANA BASU takes a look at how women are asserting themselves again in Bollywood: both as actors and filmmakers.

When Waheeda Rehman relinquished her dupatta to the winds and cast aside her inhibitions and marital obligations as well, little did she know that her signature tune would become an anthem for generations of women.

Decades after the film was made, kaanton se kheech ke ye aanchal......aaj phir jeene ki tamanna haifrom “Guide” continue to epitomise the blithe, free spirit of women.

One of the first films to have an adulterous heroine, “Guide” remains a path-breaking film in terms of maturity and a deep understanding of a woman's emotional needs. As a young dancer who leaves her abusive and elderly husband for the sympathetic young guide Raju, the character of Rosy was well ahead of the social period it was made in (1965). Women-centric movies continued to be made in later years (bold, timid and in-between) but were destined to follow a rather erratic graph.

Sensitive portrayals

There was a time when entire stories were woven around the female protagonist. Filmmakers like Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar, Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal, Shakti Samant and Yash Chopa will be remembered for the sensitivity with which they handled their screen women.

Their muses (Waheeda Rehman, Nutan, Sharmila Tagore, Madhubala, Sadhna, Nargis and others) continue to be the stuff legends are made of. Satyajit Ray's “Charulata”, a film that explored the innermost labyrinths of the female psyche, remains the eternal yardstick for judging woman-sensitive cinema.

With author-backed roles for the heroines, the filmmakers of that era were masters at portraying women with all their complexities using obtuse techniques involving light, shadows, music and muted dialogue.

“The 1960s and the 1970s were a period of the best in women-centric movies. Actors lived and breathed their roles, so much so that their screen images often spilled into their personal lives. Meena Kumari will always be synonymous with the neglected zamindar's wife of ‘Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam' (who ultimately descends into alcoholism), ditto Waheeda Rehman with the tempestuous dancer Rosy of ‘Guide', Nutan with ‘Sujata', Beena Rai with ‘Anarkali'and Nargis with ‘Mother India'. There was no dichotomy between the actor and the role she played,” says Rekha Banerjee, wife of the late film director and screenplay-writer, Shanu Banerjee.

She recalls Meena Kumari sobbing inconsolably long after the director had called ‘cut', so deeply did she immerse herself in the role; while years later, on the sets of “Khubsoorat” (a movie for which her husband had written the screenplay), she remembers her namesake, actor Rekha, laughing and frolicking much like her movie role of a tomboy.

The next generation of heroines left an equally deep impact as the impressionable viewer came to associate Jaya Bhaduri with Guddi, Hema Malini with the angelic Seeta as well as her naughty twin Geeta and Sridevi with Chandni. “There was an aura of mystery and allure surrounding them and their personal lives were almost as fascinating as their screen lives. Now heroines double up as cricket team owners, fitness gurus, restaurateurs, reality show participants/judges and columnists. Their much-hyped public images often get in the way of their screen roles detracting from the credibility of their performance,” says Banerjee.

Era of revenge

The departure of Rajesh Khanna from the silver screen marked the end of romance, while the arrival of the angry young man Amitabh Bachan heralded a cinematic era of rage and revenge. The heroine found herself relegated to a scattered peripheral presence either as the love interest of the hero or a decorative piece in a movie filled with muscles and testosterone. Consequently, a breed of actors emerged who looked like sculpted goddesses and who were quick to perfect the art of running around trees. The thinking actor was a threatened species and the likes of Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi and Deepti Naval will always be remembered for holding their own during this masculine and masochistic Bollywood chapter.

“The turn of the millenium was a dark phase for Bollywood films: rehashed themes, tinny music, lyrics sans poetry and women often projected in a derogatory manner,” says Naheed Merchant, a keen observer of Bollywood changes. However, this period was responsible for heralding some startling changes in social and gender stereotypes. Yesteryear heroines had been virginal, docile, bathed in virtue, the professions they hailed from being slightly vague; they were either nurses, dutiful daughters, students or beautiful women just content to be. The heroine and the vamp were two distinct identities.

“The sensational,promiscuous cheroot-smoking Zeenat Aman swaying to dum maaro dumin “Hare Ram Hare Krishna” was a defining moment in Hindi cinema, one that was destined to change the image of the leading lady forever. Parveen Babi followed suit by doing a smouldering cabaret in ‘Shaan' and the watertight compartments reserved for the leading lady and the vamp respectively dissolved forever,” says Mumbai based photographer and movie aficionado Deepankar B.

Shades of grey

The heroine was suddenly not a demi-goddess any more but a woman of flesh and blood, often with interesting shades of grey to her personality. Previously attired in traditional attire, the heroine was now ready to experiment with both Western clothes and a liberal international state of mind. “Heroines are no longer hesitant about flaunting their sexuality or making the first move in a relationship,” observes Deepankar. He cites Mahi Gill's character in “Dev D” and Deepika Padukone as Sonali Mukherjee in “Karthik calling Karthik”, to illustrate his point.

The recent spate of movies shows women at the top once again, rubbing shoulders with the leading man in terms of popularity and demand. Vidya Balan as the scheming seductress in “Ishqiya”, who has her male leads running loops around her (and each other), neatly sums up the GenNext heroine. Interestingly, while the actors boasting of hot bods, immaculate looks and carefully constructed public images seem to be falling back in the race for survival, the power house performers with unconventional looks and indifferent fashion sense are proving to be the marathon runners. Kajol, Konkona Sen Sharma, Vidya Balan, Tabu and Nandita Das, are the contemporary faces of intelligent cinema, agree most movie buffs. Of these, Nandita Das, besides acting, doubles up as director and screenplay writer. "From acting in filmsto directing them seemed a natural progression for me. I had the strong desire to tell my own story in my own way,” says Nandita, who is on cloud nine after her debut film “Firaaq” bagged the Filmfare Critics'' choice for the best film. She admits that being a woman director comes with its own share of gender-related hassles, “but which profession doesn't?” is her argument.

The new age heroine not only has a mind of her own but also seems to have a well chalked out career. She could be a doctor, lawyer, journalist, interior decorator, editor, fashion designer, hair stylist or even a cab driver (Deepika Padukone in “Bachna Ae Haseeno”)!

Astonishing transformation

Probably the character who has undergone the most astonishing transformation in recent years is the screen mother. From a sniffling, weary woman weighed down by the cares of the world and perennially slaving over a sewing machine (immortalised by Nirupa Roy), the mother is now smart, savvy, even sassy at times. Reading hi-brow literature late into the night in her pyjamas, crusading for social causes in the day and at all times finely tuned in to the love life of her adolescent son, Ratna Pathak in “Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na” is the undisputed new-age ‘cool mom'. “I'm frequently told that I'm the face of the new screen mother and it feels very good!” says Ratna. “However, one swallow does not a summer make. Movies generally have manufactured images seen from a male viewpoint. But a definite shift is happening to give a fresh perspective to women,” she says.

Women-centric films that connect with both the male and the female viewers are gaining in number. “Dor”, “Ishqiya”, “Parineeta”, “Fashion”, “Page 3”, “Wake Up Sid” (with its older woman-younger man theme) continue to be favourites “Even though Shah Rukh Khan played the title role, the heroine fighting to avenge her dead son in a foreign land is what comes to mind repeatedly. I think ‘My Name is Khan'belonged to the mother (Kajol),” says Deepankar.

Nandini Rao, professor of sociology, names Madhur Bhandarkar as another director who does justice to women. “He portrays them as strong individuals straining to break out of the shackles of society and carve their own space in a man's world,” says Nandini.

Behind the camera

No one quite understands a woman like another woman and women directors are going places. While Mira Nair's “Monsoon Wedding” tackled paedophilia lurking within the family, Aparna Sen spun “36 Chowringhee Lane” around the loneliness of old age among the Anglo-Indian community. The petite Tanuja Chandra chose to explore the criminal mind (with chilling success) in “Dushman” while Reema Kagti had the crowds swinging to the off-beat “Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.”.

“Dor”, one of the most sensitive films made in recent times was made by a man, Nagesh Kukunoor. Zoya Akhtar, Farah Khan, Kalpana Lajmi and Meghna Gulzar are other filmmakers who have left a mark on the silver screen.

With the star factory shutting shop, star power is on the wane. It is the day of the thinker and the performer. But for all those who fear that the old order changing may mean cinema losing its lustre and glamour- appeal, there is good news. The ingredients remain the same, it is the treatment that is changing rapidly. With author-backed roles lined up for actors of substance, a breed of visionary film-makers is waiting to greet a new cinematic dawn.

Just let them play

Just let them play

KALPANA SHARMA

Women are visible as spectators in most big sporting events but face great hurdles in their attempts to excel in sports.

I can play too...

Today, after a whole month of watching men kicking a ball around a field, and hearing the buzz of the Vuvuzela, the drama of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa will end. Millions of eyes that remained glued to television screens will get a rest. Emotions will settle. Life will move on, to other sports, other interests.

The FIFA World Cup is the world's most watched sporting event. This year, we are told, it has successfully drawn in an ever greater number of women viewers, over 40 per cent. Women were certainly visible as spectators, or rather the television cameras made sure that they were visible. But does a larger women's viewership of what is seen as a men's game have any relevance in the context of women and sports?

Clearly not. Because sports is not about watching others play; it is about being able to participate, to enjoy the physicality, the team spirit, the self-confidence, the exhilaration that sport imbues in the people who participate. Of course, in this media and corporate age, it has also come to represent fame, fortune and glamour.

But what draws millions of young women and men around the world to the playing field is not the prospect of money or fame as much as the sheer enjoyment and freedom that sports represents. Yet, we know only too well, that women who want to excel in sport face many hurdles. A few succeed. The more glamorous amongst them get name and fame. Others appear occasionally on our television screens and news pages and are then forgotten.

Where are the women?

In contrast, pages are devoted to men's sports and individual men who excel in sports. Looking at an average sports page, or sports coverage on our television channels, you could almost believe that women either do not play any sports, or are not interested.

Take just soccer, or football. The American team made a mark in this World Cup. But it is women who made soccer popular in the U.S. The American women's soccer team won the FIFA Women's World Cup as far back as 1999 in a spectacular match against the Chinese team.

Even in China, women have done extremely well on the football field. Not so their male counterparts, who have not yet managed to qualify for the World Cup. And in Germany, women's football is successful and they now even have professional clubs like the men.

In many countries, women's participation in sports increased because those who manage sports acknowledged that traditional gender biases work against women taking part in sports, and because of that specific steps sometimes have to be taken to encourage them to participate.

Thus, in the United States, for instance, Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education including athletics, was enacted in 1975. As a result, more women could enter institutes of higher learning on athletic scholarships. Before the law, only two per cent of women college students participated in sport. After it, by 2001, the number had jumped to 43 per cent. Similarly before Title IX, only seven per cent of girls in high school participated in sport. By 2001, 41.5 per cent were doing so.

In athletics, the Olympic Charter was amended in 2004 with the following inclusion: “The IOC encourages and supports the promotion of women in sport at all levels and in all structures, with a view to implementing the principle of equality of men and women” (Rule 2, para 7, Olympic Charter). Possibly because of this specific provision, the participation of women in the Beijing Olympics in 2008 touched an all time high of 42 per cent.

Of course, gender equity in sports is not just a numbers game. The playing field can serve so many other functions. Sticking still with football, a unique experiment of bringing healing to a nation that saw the worst genocide since World War II was undertaken in Rwanda a few years ago. “Kicking for Reconciliation” is a project in which over 100 girls, both Tutsis and Hutus, have been trained to play football.

One of their trainers, a young woman called Emertha, said in an interview to Women without Borders, the organisation that initiated the project, “In football, there are no Hutus and Tutsis, there is just us, we, the team.” Passionate about football, Emertha had to overcome the questioning of her neighbours when she took to the field. They told her that this was a man's game. To which she replied, “Why? I have my legs and I use them! What's up? Do I ask you to help me? It's me who's playing and the ball is there. So let me just play.”

Facilities

In fact, that is what millions of young girls around the world must be saying, “Let me just play”. In this country, we don't talk enough about women's sports. It is virtually invisible from our sports pages barring the exceptional sports woman. But should we not be looking at sporting facilities for children, including girls, in schools? Are they given adequate encouragement? Do they have role models if they really want to pursue a future in sports? Where can they go for further training? Do colleges give sports scholarships? How many girls win them? Is their percentage going up or declining? Even as we encourage girls' education, should we not be looking at sports as an integral part of education?

India is hosting the Commonwealth Games later this year. We read constantly about the infrastructure being put in place in New Delhi for it. The spanking new airport is now the envy of every major Indian city including Mumbai, which suffers the problems of making do with an incrementally improved airport. Yet will these games encourage more young Indians, women and men, to aspire to be sportspersons?

That is unlikely if even the few sports facilities that exist for young people are swallowed up by the infrastructure being built for the Commonwealth Games. As the former director of the NCERT, Krishna Kumar, wrote in this newspaper last week ( The Hindu, June 28), school playgrounds in Delhi have become dumping grounds for construction material and some grounds have been taken over. Delhi schools will be closed during the Games. As a result, when children return to school, they will be forced to make up with extra classes, leaving precious little time to enjoy sports. We might have the Right to Education now, but young people still cannot assert the right to play sports. And young women cannot even dream of kicking a ball around a football field leave alone saying, “Let me just play”.