Editorial: Choose to challenge token celebrations

The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is #ChooseToChallenge. The global movement aimed at helping women call out gender bias and inequality has gained significant momentum in the year of the pandemic, which as per many studies, has placed a heavier burden on women, on account of balancing the work and home fronts. In India, the issue of gender-based discrimination has highlighted disparities across the board - from corporate spaces to the personal and legal aspects as well. Recently, the LinkedIn Opportunity Index 2021 reported that across all nations in the Asia Pacific region, working women in India were subject to the strongest impact of gender bias when it came to career development. The study said 4 in every 5 women or 85 per cent of respondents felt they have been passed over for a pay hike, job offer, or a promotion, on account of their gender. And over 70 per cent of women said domestic responsibilities have adversely affected career progressions in the long run. For instance, returning post-maternity leave or taking a few years off for child care.

Discrimination at work takes an uglier turn, considering the number of sexual harassment cases reported annually in corporate India and official institutions. The recent case involving a police officer accusing her senior of inappropriate behaviour shed light on the difficulties faced even by women who appear to be in positions of authority at their places of work. Interestingly, a Madras High Court Judge, in a carefully worded remark had zeroed in on a ‘faulty gene’ to be the cause for men treating women like ‘chattel’ or ‘property’.

While on the one hand, it is heartening that women in the organised sector are gradually mustering the courage to speak out against their abusers, there are thousands of cases that go unreported in the case of the women working in the informal sector. Last October, the international NGO, Human Rights Watch released a study that said the government’s failure to enforce the sexual harassment laws left women in the unorganised sector in an especially vulnerable condition. To put this in context, the largest segment of India’s women workforce or 95 per cent is employed in the informal sector, roughly about 195 mn women.

But expecting equanimity at the office might seem like a far cry for a nation where lawmakers placed in the highest echelons of power still ponder over the notion of consent. Some of them seem complicit in the act of bartering a woman’s sense of agency in exchange for a male guardian. A recent case in point involves the Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde who asked a perpetrator of sexual assault to marry his victim, a school-going girl. As many as 4,000 women’s rights activists have now put together an open letter asking him to step down for his remarks and for allegedly legitimising the act of marital rape, in another comment he made.

In the backdrop of a narrative of never-ending assaults carried out against women, a call for observing Women’s Day is made in India. But it begs a fundamental question - will an observance of a day in itself be potent enough to wipe out the double standards that we hold women in India against? Forget about the commercial hoopla surrounding such occasions - from Ladies Night freebies at nightclubs, to discounted makeovers at a salon, or throwaway sales on e-tailer portals; there are actual battles to be fought that require commitment from men and women in equal measure. We must not make a mockery of this day by pandering to a superficial representation of Women’s Day. As equal partners in the nation’s progress, their voices need to be heard, their choices must be respected, their interests need to be protected and the question of their representation in every sphere of life must be addressed with sensitivity.