A woman is the fuel of this world. This world would have stopped if female gender didn't exist. She is an important factor in the cycle of birth and rebirth. It's an unknown secret how the first man and woman came into this world.
From suffering a menstrual cycle for more than half of her life, to being a mother and feeding a child, her role is difficult. It's not difficult because she is a woman. It's difficult because society gave her the status that she is a woman and she is beneath man. She never gave herself that or any other identity.
From sati to the present situation, it's easy to say that the condition of women has improved in society. We can say that it has improved in the field of education and few more. Not in every field. Very few.
The only improvement is that earlier people harassed women openly. They considered them as inferior. There were no laws for upliftment of women. Now there are laws, but not implemented. Neither at that time women revolted, raised voice against violence and harassment of their rights, nor do they revolt today.
I think somewhere women themselves may be responsible for their own poor condition. When you see the same behavior being repeated again and again, you start believing that to be the truth. The same is true with women. Specifically in India. It doesn't matter how much you have developed, your society has developed, standards of living have improved, women are always told that they are inferior and always behind men. This is called the domination of the system. A woman at some point considers herself that she is only meant to give birth to a child, feed the child and her family, even if she is highly educated. She has to cook food along with her job. There is nothing bad in doing so but society doesn't appreciate it. For them it's her responsibility and the woman has to manage both.
The development of the standards of women is a long term war. It's an irony that on one hand the status of women is improving, they are coming forward in every field, they are exploring themselves, they are becoming equal to men, but all this is limited to only a very few women. Total female population according to the 2020 census is 620 million. Barely 10% of women would be having full freedom and liberty to live, love and express it.
Even if the government, law and NGOs are trying to improve the status of women, society does not want to cooperate. Somewhere women too don't want to change the status quo. They would continue feeding family, children and parents. She considers it her responsibility because of love and affection. I am also caught in this dilemma, despite knowing my own rights. How can love and affection be a trap of deteriorating yourself? The best example is women.
India is a country where 70% of the population lives in remote areas or in villages. Most of the people here are either poor or middle class. If the condition of women has improved, it is only for the women of higher class or of middle class that too not completely as equal to man.
Even in higher, middle and lower classes the condition of a large number of women is so harsh that it's hard to express. The ground reality is that women still have no value in society. Men easily dominate them.
I have seen that the girls, when they attain the age of 12-14 get either engaged or married to someone whom they have not even met, nor seen. In this 21st century, after the engagement, these young kiddo girls aren't allowed to come out of the home. They are forced to go hungry and fast for their husbands to be. They live almost a married woman's life at such an early age.
Domestic violence is very much prevalent in India. Women are still beaten by their husbands. Not only the women living in rural areas and uneducated, domestic violence is tolerated by the working women, those who are educated and are married in rich families.
Love marriage, inter-caste marriage is still a sin, which society declared. Girls cannot take decisions on their own. They cannot have a voice of their own. How can one control someone's life so badly?
It's easy to say one must raise a voice for the rights. It is very hard for women in India to convince herself to do so. She could be educated, she could be employed, but what about her freedom? She is controlled financially and emotionally.
Love and affection are the worst trap in which women throw themselves so badly. In the name of respect she gives rights to her husband, her father, her mother, her elders, her in-laws etc. She might feel that they are older and she must obey them. There is a difference between obeying and controlling. People in India take respect and loyalty for granted. They think that they can control a person. If she doesn't get controlled, she doesn't become a puppet, she is not an ideal woman, daughter, sister, wife, daughter in law and all other relationships.
She is important because she is going to give birth to another generation. She doesn't deserve love, respect and freedom simultaneously. If one in many does something against the rules of society she gets tortured even by her family members and beloved. Here's where she feels that all care about the society and status is fake. It's the system which dominates.
It will take centuries for women’s conditions to get better.. Sometimes what you see is not the truth, and what's true cannot be seen. You can just feel how hard it is, especially in Indian society, to play the role of a woman. Despite being a form of goddess to whom every single person praises daily, people abuse each other in her name only by taking the name of a woman i.e mother and sister. Hypocrisy is so strong in people of India.
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