The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Women of new UP weigh Romeo vs anti-romeo
IN ITS manifesto for UP, the BJP promises to create “anti-romeo dals” near colleges to “ensure the safety of college-going girls” and “check eve-teasing”. In Meerut, BJP president Amit Shah promised that an anti-romeo squad will safeguard the “honour and chastity” of “our women” in each college.
The allusion to “our women” was widely interpreted as an indirect reference to intercommunity and inter-caste marriages.
In a rally in Gonda days after Valentine’s Day, the Samajwadi Party’s Dimple Yadav declared that it was actually a pitch by the BJP to go after the freedom women enjoy in a college or university environment, that it would become an “anti Romeo-juliet squad” to harass couples and deny them the freedom to choose their life partners. “The SP government has provided several public spaces such as Janeshwar Mishra Park with a safe environment where you can play with children, take along your mother, wife, or even girlfriend,” she said.
These two opposing views, anti-romeo versus anti-romeo-juliet, have an important context in eastern UP too, where musclemen of the Hindu Yuva Vahini have for years been trying to dissuade inter-community marriages and sometimes succeeded.
What should have sparked another debate is Dimple’s commitment “to initiate 35 per cent reservation in all government jobs for women”. She repeated this in Gonda on February 26, saying the party is committed to “33% reservation for women”. It was a stand diametrically opposite that of the SP itself, which had led the struggle against the women reservation bill.
In the rapidly altering political space of UP, one change is particularly striking: the increased mobility of women, not for picking up groceries or dropping children to school but for their own pursuits.
Prahlad Yadav and Raj Kumar, BA students in Gorakhpur, take note of the slow but certain change in the lives of women. Says Prabhat: “They do their own work independently and comfortably, they do not need us for it.” Raj Kumar observes: “They speak to us in classes and it is not as if we are seen as boyfriend-girlfriend necessarily. They also are seen discussing issues and making up their own minds.”
Several students waiting for classes to resume after the polls say everybody should be “free to choose their life partners”. Raj Kumar speaks of a Hindu-muslim couple in his neighbourhood who recently got married; “resistance is coming down to such things”.
In Gorakhpur University, Tehseen Fatima, studying for a BA in Sanskrit, says the mobile phone has given a lot of mobility. She makes a case of the vast change that has taken place in her mother’s and her life, and baulks at the thought of an “anti-romeo” squad to manage safety. Says her classmate, Sharada, “For women’s safety there is the helpline, 1090, and the government says about 6 lakh girls have been saved from stalkers. Why would we need other squads?”
Neha, on a scooty, quotes the Constitution: “You should know that it allows us to marry anyone, of any faith and caste, the minute we cross age 18.”
Swati Singh is an accidental politician; she is the BJP candidate in Sarojini Nagar of Lucknow after the party sacked her husband, Daya Shankar, for objectionable remarks about Mayawati. She sidesteps the idea of anti-romeo squads when she says: “Girls have told us to get a college made close to them so that they can travel without fear of being abused and stalked. All girls get stalked and need protection. Girls get molested and don’t speak.”
According to the latest NCRB statistics, UP is at number three in terms of rapes and attempts to rape, following Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Swati, now campaigning in eastern UP, says she sometimes senses an attempt by people to push her towards where women usually are, by saying “Aap andar jaaiye”.
There are vast areas of UP untouched by change. Rani, 18, had to stop her studies as her mother thinks she must prepare to get married. But even as they manage their six bighas, there is an acceptance of a changing world and their place in it. “I did not experience much trouble in school. My mother wanted us to help with the farming so we left school. But I see women doing very well.”
There is no real understanding of the women’s vote in UP in the way it is in neighbouring Bihar, where the cycle for girls became a symbol of Nitish Kumar’s rule, as did mobility and safety for women.
In UP, scholarships, Kanya Vidya Dhan, pensions and also cycles pushed by the SP are being matched with the BJP’S claims of making cooking gas available more liberally. But schemes and entitlements apart, ideas of social progress have not been a calling card for most political parties.