The NDA is lax about gender issues
tional. We also need to tackle deeper mindset issues to instil a sense of gender equality. But, BJP leaders foster a misogynistic environment through their sexist remarks. On one occasion, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said: “If men acquire women-like qualities, they become gods but when women acquire men like qualities, they become (‘rakshasa’) demon like.” On another, Haryana CM ML Khattar remarked: “If a girl is dressed decently, a boy will not look at her in the wrong way … If girls want freedom, why don’t they just roam around naked?” If those in power harbour such regressive views towards women, how then can we expect a change in mindset of the public?
The effect of this mindset also manifests in various other forms of discrimination: The Women’s Reservation Bill, introduced by the UPA in 2008, has been languishing since the BJP came to power, despite it being one of their electoral promises.
The problem extends to women in the workforce, who are still faced with the challenge of a 20% gender wage gap in India, as per the Monster Salary Index (MSI). While men in India earn a median gross hourly salary of ₹231, women are at ₹184.8. They represent only 24% of the paid labour force, as against the global average of 40%, as per the Mckinsey Global Institute Report 2015. Instead of making efforts to remedy this, the NDA, along with its ‘volunteers’, spends its time trolling women. Be it the vile remarks and threats aimed at Sushma Swaraj or the suppression of the Opposition’s voice by threatening the minor daughter of Congress spokesperson, Priyanka Chaturvedi, women today are faced with a hostile and an inimical environment in which their liberty and equality are being undercut.
Women comprise half our population and no policy, scheme, slogan, or event can achieve inclusive growth, as long as regressive statements plague this sphere. We can start by having school curricula with mandatory components of gender sensitisation for instructors, material developers and students, so that gender stereotyping and prejudices are not internalised by impressionable minds. Sensitisation of persons in public offices is also important.
The government’s role here cannot be to brush off crucial women’s issues to be mere “law and order” problems as a State subject. India ought to acknowledge the problem, and the government must bear both the responsibility to mend the situation and the accountability for the outcome.
Jyotiraditya Scindia is the chief whip of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha and former Union minister The views expressed are personal