Conform or die

THIS has not been a very good month for our women. The facts about the declining numbers of girls in the 0-6 age group, as revealed by the 2001 census, is already old news. But the news that even those girls who survived do not make it to a ripe old age reminds us again of the shamefully low status of women in this country, and of the fact that women are targeted whenever men have disputes to settle.

Take the horrific story of a young 17-year-old girl, Sanju, who was beaten to death in Devipur village, Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh. What was her crime? She was accused of giving birth to an illegitimate child and abandoning it in the fields.

The truth, as in all such cases, was far removed from this. Sanju had been married off at the age of 13. But as is the custom, she was not sent to her marital home. She would have been sent this November. She was not pregnant, women in the village confirm. Her real crime was that she spurned the advances of some men in the village.

For this, these men appointed themselves the panch parmeshwar, literally five gods, gave their ruling without a hearing or a trial and beat the girl to death. What is worse, they asked the father to carry out their punishment.

Sanju's father refused and tried to stop them from beating his daughter. The heart-broken man told a reporter, "No villager came to her rescue. When my wife and I tried to protect her, we were also beaten up. It was night and the nearest hospital was a boat- ride away, so we could not even get her medical treatment. We applied some balm to her body, but it did not work. She died three hours after the incident."

This tragic and haunting story has found its way into the press. The accused have been arrested. Who knows whether there will be justice. But in the meantime, the terrible reality it brings out is how women are still being punished just because they are women. Sanju had no choice when she was married off at the age of 13, when most girls are just discovering their sexuality. She was targeted by men in her village because she was a young woman. The fact that she was married did not protect her. Yet, for rejecting the advances of powerful men in her village she was condemned to death.

The newspapers are full of such stories. You read of old women being condemned as witches and hunted and killed. Such reports do not come only from remote villages in Jharkhand. Even in the capital of India, New Delhi, a 75-year-old woman, living in a middle-class housing colony, is being called a witch.

Her neighbour is reported to have said: "We would have finished her off if she was not this old. We will have to resort to extreme steps if she continues with her black magic." Once again, the woman has become the target of unsubstantiated rumours. What is frightening is the violence of the responses - "extreme steps".

At the other end of the spectrum, you have political groups imposing dress codes on women and taking "extreme steps" if they do not conform. In Kashmir, young women have had acid thrown at them for not wearing the burqa. Despite reassurances from prominent militant groups that they do not support the imposition of a dress code, the burqa has overnight become the dominant dress form in the valley. Black cloth is in short supply and the prices have rocketed. Yet no woman dares defy the code for fear of being damaged for life.

Far away from Kashmir, in Manipur too, a militant group has demanded that all Manipuri women must wear the traditional sarong or risk being killed. The saree, salwar-kameez and trousers have been "banned". As in Kashmir, where the dress code dictate has come from an unknown group - the Laskhar-e-Jabbar - in Manipur too few people had heard of the Kangjamba (KYKL) before they issued these orders.

So Manipuri, Kashmiri or a village girl from Uttar Pradesh, the Indian woman is told how to behave, what to wear, when to marry, whom to marry, when to procreate, the sex of child she has to bear (male, of course) - the list is endless. No questioning, no defiance, only obedience. Where is all this "empowerment" that we hear about every now and then?

KALPANA SHARMA

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