Can an unmarried woman have her own child with social acceptance?
Supreme Court of India says that to raise a child, women do not need to mention
child’s father’s name anywhere, and no system makes it mandatory to write
father’s name on any paper whatsoever. But the question is are Indian women
ready to accept such challenges and live their life with respect in society?
This is not about the equality with men; this is about rights of women.
Now a day, we talk a lot about feminism and empowerment of women,
however most of the time we compare men and women ability to judge who is
better. I think we must not compare them; we should talk about
their empowerment and rights. When two men cannot be equal, two
women cannot be equal, then how a man and a woman can be.
There is no question that condition of women is being better. In 21st century,
they are participating in fields where they were not supposed to be. Now we can
come across many names in sports, politics, business, film industry and in
other fields too. However, major part of women population is living as
housewife and most of them are not financially independent. Financial
independence is integral part of women emancipation.
In many countries women are driving bus, but in India women are afraid
to travel in bus. Few women are coming forward and breaking the gender barriers
by adopting driving as their career. However we have to go a long way to have a
safe society for women where they can live with respect and dignity.
On this women’s day, we should also heed on psychological independence
which is rooted culturally into girls mind. We should think why most of the
girls look for a rich guy for marriage, while most of the boys don’t. Because
women feel secure with rich guy, of course they should. They feel secure
because of the cultural conditioning. Sisters and brothers celebrate festival
of Rakshabandhan in which brothers swear to help their sisters in ups and downs
of life, and they are considered as a protector of their sisters. This breeds
an unintentional culture into girls that they are secure when someone better
than them is present in her life to provide them security.
Same thing is applicable to marriage. Girls are being educated to treat
her husband as God and protector. A girl from childhood observes that her
father is the whole sole earner in the house and other ladies are just home
maker, they grew up with this mind set to have such a husband who can give them
financial and physical security.
There is nothing wrong in this, however once they are financially
independent why still they are looking for such security. They must break such
conditioning to be totally free from patriarchy to live a life of freedom. If
you are dependent on someone for whatever reason, sooner or later you are going
to pay for it. Your relationship should be based on understanding, not on need.
Many women those who have good career and considered as independent
women in society are still confined in their psychological limitations. They
can speak in public but they can’t speak at home in front of their in-laws and
husband. They don’t have much interference in family decisions. Even some of
them are having good living standard but they don’t have much freedom to speak.
Women should not make this as a war and understand what extent they
should go to achieve their rights. Few years ago, a DU girl makes a statement
on social media regarding wearing clothes that “Even if I walk naked no one has
right to stare at me”. Yes, everyone is free to wear whatever they want to; however
don’t we think that we should not go to such intense and make such comments.
Women’s empowerment is not only in being a icon, leader, film star or
sport celebrity, but also when she drives car and her husband sits beside her,
when no one demands dowry in marriage, when male employee does not feel
inferior reporting a female manager, when female foeticide ends absolutely,
when domestic violence against women stops completely, when gender ratio
equalizes in each state, and these things cannot be achieved only by women, men
should come forward and support them to make it possible.
This is the era of changes, especially for women, and they
should handle this change with delicacy and understanding. They will have
to go through struggle for their rights in society, home and in personal life.
Family, friends, office colleagues are their society and only these people are
going to insist them to follow something or not to follow something, however
always listen to your inner voice what to do for your good future and life.
