Jelitoli I. Swu
We live amidst cumulative danger and emergent opportunities as well and we are in constant consternation. The desire to be shackles-free, to be identified, to find a place for ourselves in a society is inherent in each pumping hearts. The desire is fulfilled, at least as to what is required, if not all, by each person’s claim of his rights as being Human Being (Human Rights)
The Principle of Equality is not the least of attributes that goes up to the making of Human Rights and it is enshrined. The question is how far has this notion of equality come along with us in practical life? Take a leap back to the time when God created the first human being true He first created, Adam (man), but is not it for the ‘woman’ he felt the joy of having a companion? God must have been too wise to make a mistake of creating Eve (woman) either out of Adam’s head or leg. Either of it, and women would have been in either of extremes, but He, in all His wisdom took the rib-bone, a sure sign of equality and an equal companion. Now, leap forward into the current context, ostensibly this Principle of Equality prevails. However, in practice this remains a mere design-for the women section, as their rights are being relegated.
The fact of my estimation triggered my consciousness.55 %( of 100%) of highly qualified urban women, once married, is degraded to mere house wife despite her abstract potentialities and abilities. 45% are in either of the below-like categories: After ten years of marriage, this woman’s husband along with his relatives, charges for a divorce. The reason being that she got infected with HIV virus. The fact of husband’s immoral life prior to marriage remained obscured to his relatives. The story took a different turn and it came the other way round, he victimized his wife-and she was made to endure it all. My discussion with another women, a prominent figure in the society (I’d better not mention her name), forms another category. She is the sole financial source of her family and after all that she had done, she is still expected to do the manual works, domestic chores, let alone fulfilling her husbands desires unwilling. The percentage is higher in rural area. These all boils down to one thing, the one notion which encompasses most people’s mind- “women ought to be subservient; they ought not to reply back…” We allow these misconceptions to engulf us, holding one false truth in our minds that “It is cultural tradition.” Dead and gone are those many women with untold miseries bottled up in them and still how many lives a debacle life because of the fundamental women’s right being curtailed?
Women’s position in society has been fluctuating. There had been a time when women were revered and held-in high position. However with the passage of time this position declined. “Women’s unique biological potential is repeatedly rendered as a liability that establishes women’s inferiority to and dependence upon men (who are rendered as naturally superior). Women’s capacity for biological reproduction becomes essentialized as her nature; the “givenness” of-this capacity is then extended to the entire social production, thereby consigning women to a restricted “family” domain.” We are blinded to truth, had not women taken care of the concrete world, men could not have been able to concentrate in his abstract world. Her biological potential should not be misunderstood as liable to men’s superiority over her. Is it not for her dexterously securing necessity, attending to bodily needs, meticulously ensuring physical maintenance that enables men to participate in other activities whether intellectual, political or for that matter, even recreation?
We now live in a juncture of transformation. Slowly, gradually though; women’s rights are being recognized, women’s position are transcending. To name few- Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, The U.S. Secretary of State, Angela Merkel, The Chancellor of Germany or even closer homeward Pratibha Patil, The first woman President of India, are the most prominent women in the world. Give any responsibility to women as that of men and she assist or attend to it with equal ease as men would. Her ability to tackle with concrete world, braced with her ability to understand the abstract world, women are now on par with men in almost every fields (barring those involving strenuous manual labour.
To exploit their rights fully is women’s task at hand now. Shouldn’t we (women) be taking part in politics and administrations? List the numbers of women politicians, women members in Municipal Councils; we are down with almost none keeping aside a handful of women legislators and administrators. Are not we Naga women talented and potential enough to be contesting even for General Elections, Municipal councils or even explore the world beyond our confined worlds? We tend to be too comfortable with wherever we are placed. Should not we be elevating with the advancement of the world? The right to participate is ours and ours also is the right to exploit it Be avaricious even to go to the whole hog for your right and we should not allow the rest to hold us accountable for our rights claimed.
If women could very well administer her home and that she fares better than men, ¬can she, with same efficiency not administer and take care of her society, state? Though living in a “Twilight zone” marked by invisible catastrophe shattering ethical and psychological being within us, the fact that we are progressing cannot be denied. So, with better understanding about our counterparts, with fervent cooperation from both sections, our society will illuminate and have better progressing rate.
