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INT’L WOMEN’S DAY-INDIA: Two Steps Forward, One Backward

Soma Basu

MADURAI, Tamil Nadu, Mar 8 2007 (IPS) - A government report released as part of an extensive national family health survey has come as a rude shock for a state long regarded as progressive. It placed Tamil Nadu high on a list of states where wife-beating is common.

Though unintended, the release of the report, part of an extensive national health and family survey, five days ahead of an International Women’s Day which carries the theme ‘Ending Impunity for Violence Against Women’, was more than a trifle embarrassing for activists and officials celebrating the event here, Thursday.

Tamil Nadu takes pride in the fact that it is one of the few Indian states that has taken steps to ensure 33 percent representation for women in all statutory and non-statutory committees of the state government. Its comprehensive mid-day meal scheme has played a decisive role in spreading girls’ education. And the creation of self-help groups has been critical in helping women take their first step in economic empowerment.

”People in Tamil Nadu still retain a feudal mentality,” explained Dr.Jaya Kothai Pillai, secretary general of New Delhi-based All India Women’s Conference. The survey stated that 41.9 percent of married women in Tamil Nadu experience spousal violence, significantly higher than the national average of 37.2 per cent.

Even in the metropolis of Chennai, which is Tamil Nadu’s capital, 41 percent of married women reported being abused by their husbands, according to the survey. But matters are worse in the rural areas of this state with a population of 63 million.

For Pillai, who was born and brought up in the temple city of Madurai and later studied, worked and travelled all over the world, the report was no surprise. ”We have and continue to face a two-fold problem. We as a nation have constantly undermined woman power and we have not really understood the meaning of empowerment,” she said in an IPS interview.

Referring to stereotyped female characters in popular Tamil TV soaps she said: ”They are either scheming and manipulative or are shown as meek and very traditional. Sadly most of these serials are directed or produced by women – and yet they tend to project a negative image.”

What truly saddened her was a discussion on a local Tamil channel, as part of Women’s Day celebrations, where the concept of women’s empowerment was seen as giving power to women. “Empowerment is a much misunderstood and misused word. Everybody has potential and must get an opportunity to achieve that potential.”

“Though we have passed many laws which respect women’s rights, nowhere in the world can women claim to have the same kind of rights, freedom and opportunities as men,” said Cynthia Tiphagne of Peoples’ Watch, a Madurai-based non-government organisation (NGO) referring to the many contradictions in the state.

Tamil Nadu has made remarkable strides in making accessible quality health facilities to its people. Core interventions have helped in bringing down the IMR (Infant Mortality Rate) from 51 to 44 per 1,000 and the MMR (Maternal Mortality Rate) to one per 1,000.

Women who were denied opportunities earlier are now marching ahead. Female literacy rate rose by 14.87 percent in the last decade, bringing it to an overall figure of 54.16 percent. Several top posts are held by women. The first all-woman police battalion in the country was constituted in Tamil Nadu.

Yet, there is a flip side. Some 60 percent of women in Tamil Nadu are anaemic. Women in bureaucracy constitute less than two percent. Female foeticide and infanticide are still rampant in particular communities in some districts of the state. Women and child trafficking and the rising incidence of HIV/AIDS continue to be a cause for concern.

“Though we have done well in the education sector and enrolment of girl students in schools and colleges has gone up manifold, much more than higher literacy levels are vital for complete empowerment,” says Anandavalli, head of the department of futurology at the Madurai Kamaraj University. ”

”The global day of celebration is meant to remind society of facts about women’s equality. There is a need to celebrate the progress and contemplate those areas of women’s lives where much can still be done,” she said. ”The need of the hour is to have more women as leaders in different sectors,” Mahadevan, who closely collaborates with Pillai said.

The two-steps-forward and one step-backward process has propelled Jaya and Mahadevan to work on a book called “Women’s Futures” to analysing at the state, regional and national levels sectors where the gender gap has narrowed, where there has been a ‘leap forward’ for women, where they are ‘limping forward’ and where they are ‘lagging behind’ or just ‘looking forward’.

They regard as a wonder how a ”woman endures injustice and struggles for an equal footing year after year all in the hope of transforming her relationship with her male counterpart, personally or professionally”.