Women Need Power, Not Pity

Females are just mere mortals, with their own flaws, who need to be accepted as the equal half of humanity and challenged in an equal measure

- Shubhangi Singh

Recently when the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India upheld the death penalty for four culprits in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape case, I felt a sense of vacuum lurking behind. The decision is applaudable, but there are questions even the so called ‘feminists’ in India are not ready to answer; what has tangibly changed for the average Indian woman in the last five years? Big media brouhaha, some pretty enterprising hash tags, few films showing rape and a consolatory verdict after four years are all we have to show for it. A woman, who was called ‘Nirbhaya’ for the fearless public reaction she evoked, would have been heartbroken at the fear mongering that the current popular narrative thrives on.

During the Universal Periodic Review held last week at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Special Rapporteur’s report has shined the torch on incidences of caste and gender-based violence. There were 73 recommendations for India specifically on women’s issues, varying from sexual violence to honour killing, including those from twelve countries pushing for criminalisation of marital rape and the removal of the exception related to marital rape from the definition of rape in the Indian Penal Code. Sadly though, going against the usual norm, all recommendations made last week at the UPR have been dumped in the pending list. This reflects the mindset of our government and the Indian society at large, which becomes defensive at the slightest suggestion of the uncomfortable ground reality concerning women in India. Till the denial exists, there is little hope for real change.