It’s all over the news these days….The women’s quota bill.There’s so much ruckus and so much infighting among parties.But i fail to see the whole point of it.The whole country is suffering from a 20% food inflation rate, 300 million people are below the poverty line and only about 60% of the population is barely literate out which only a minority is truly educated.These are the figures the parliament should work on improving rather than the present 33% or OBC,SC/ST,Muslim quotas and the innumerable other quotas.In today’s newspaper editorial it said “Quotas perpetuate inequalities rather than alleviate it".” I couldn’t agree more.its sad that all politicians do is play vote bank politics to the hilt.Every politician and i haven't seen an exception, believes that he needs to lobby for a quota for the community that he or she represents so that come next election he or she can boast about it in the manifesto.But why don’t these politicians ever work towards a situation where the community they represent don’t require a regressive quota to make them come up the social ladder. Wouldn’t that be an excellent thing to boast about in the next election.
The quota mentality aside,they say this bill will empower women.But again their argument falls flat.First you have to face the fact that India still is a patriarchal society so no matter which women are elected,the men behind the women are going to call the shots. Secondly to win an election in this country you more often than not need a political lineage.So the women getting elected will be daughters, daughters-in-law,nieces,etc of present politicians.so how will the political will change towards women.
It is no secret that women in our country are treated shabbily especially in rural areas.Everyday some story somewhere reeks of women mistreatment.Whether it is female infanticide,child trafficking,child marriage,prostitution,domestic violence,dowry harassment,rapes,sexual harassment or plain unequal treatment.Women need to do any given work twice as good as a man to get half the credit.But as women keep proving this isn't too tough.Even today men have trouble taking orders from a woman who is is higher up the ladder than them.Women are the beautiful half of humanity and yet we accord them so little respect.
But times are changing but painfully slowly.Education is partly doing the trick.And by education i don't mean knowing to read and write with understanding which is what essentially what literacy means and to the majority of the country this is what education means.To read or write is not enough.Education means understanding what is beautiful in life.To see that no matter which colour,race,caste,gender,religion you belong to you are not superior or inferior to anybody else.To give you the vision to create dreams and the courage to see them come true.That is essentially what education really means.But sadly if you see the state of government primary and secondary schools even in big cities like Bangalore,Kolkata,Mumbai,etc you get the idea how far behind we are in educating the people.Children there are not even sure they’ll come back to school after summer vacation.The teachers there either don’t take classes or are woefully unqualified for the job.I have myself seen first hand what goes on in these primary schools in villages when i was working as an intern in the school health program and i was really saddened by the pathetic conditions.I was left wondering in one school that none of the 800 children studying there would end up as a doctor,engineer,writer or any higher social standing.They will all end up as uneducated,sometimes illiterate day labourers,rickshaw-pullers,cobblers,construction workers,chaiwallahs etc living hand to mouth.And the girls among them will not even be so fortunate.Heaven knows if they will even reach adolescence before being subjected to child marriages,dowry deaths,trafficking,prostitution,domestic violence and also left with no chance of independent living.This is how pathetic the condition of the country is and these are the very people for whom quotas were meant to improve the lives of. We have had quotas for nearly 60 years now and today we have even more people demanding quotas than 60 years ago.Ironic since if the quota policy was working why do we see so much inequality today.These quotas were supposed to improve the living conditions of those people I've mentioned above which clearly they have not.So if this isn’t proof that quotas aren’t working then what is? All this has done is the creamy layers(and their successive generations) in the disadvantaged groups are getting an unfair advantage over other hardworking people of the country.This creamy layer is unfairly using an advantage not meant for them when the people for whom these quotas are meant for never complete school.
Education has changed the way i look at things.I have learnt to do things only when i love to do it.i have actually loved learning chemistry,mathematics,physics and literature.I didn’t study those subjects since i had to study them to get a good job or any other reason that is usually given.I wish every kid in the country would be so fortunate to experience what i have done and also feel what it is to be taught by great teachers.Today i have the gift of independent thought and opinion which i suspect majority of Indians don't have.This is primarily why mindless following of senseless political party policies enjoy such huge successes.Since majority of the population do not have any opinions regarding national issues,these self appointed “guardians of Indian polity “ read-Indian politicians deem it their right to propagate their illogical political propaganda and quota politics.These people are not interested in educating the masses.In fact they would prefer not to educate them at all since independent opinion breeds weakening of their support bases-vote banks(uneducated faceless Indians).Hence education is the panacea to most ills that plague our country.
Empower our children(female included) with education and independence.Teach them the right way to live.Teach them to dream and give them them the courage to go in new directions.Open up new avenues of thinking.Change mindsets with education not quotas.Change lives with affirmative action and not regressive politics.Change the world with superior thought and not primitive violence.I wish such common sense prevailed among politicians.But until that happens i hope everyone of us can make a difference in our country in our own small way whenever we can and in whatever form we can impart.
Raghuraj S. Hegde
The quota mentality aside,they say this bill will empower women.But again their argument falls flat.First you have to face the fact that India still is a patriarchal society so no matter which women are elected,the men behind the women are going to call the shots. Secondly to win an election in this country you more often than not need a political lineage.So the women getting elected will be daughters, daughters-in-law,nieces,etc of present politicians.so how will the political will change towards women.
It is no secret that women in our country are treated shabbily especially in rural areas.Everyday some story somewhere reeks of women mistreatment.Whether it is female infanticide,child trafficking,child marriage,prostitution,domestic violence,dowry harassment,rapes,sexual harassment or plain unequal treatment.Women need to do any given work twice as good as a man to get half the credit.But as women keep proving this isn't too tough.Even today men have trouble taking orders from a woman who is is higher up the ladder than them.Women are the beautiful half of humanity and yet we accord them so little respect.
But times are changing but painfully slowly.Education is partly doing the trick.And by education i don't mean knowing to read and write with understanding which is what essentially what literacy means and to the majority of the country this is what education means.To read or write is not enough.Education means understanding what is beautiful in life.To see that no matter which colour,race,caste,gender,religion you belong to you are not superior or inferior to anybody else.To give you the vision to create dreams and the courage to see them come true.That is essentially what education really means.But sadly if you see the state of government primary and secondary schools even in big cities like Bangalore,Kolkata,Mumbai,etc you get the idea how far behind we are in educating the people.Children there are not even sure they’ll come back to school after summer vacation.The teachers there either don’t take classes or are woefully unqualified for the job.I have myself seen first hand what goes on in these primary schools in villages when i was working as an intern in the school health program and i was really saddened by the pathetic conditions.I was left wondering in one school that none of the 800 children studying there would end up as a doctor,engineer,writer or any higher social standing.They will all end up as uneducated,sometimes illiterate day labourers,rickshaw-pullers,cobblers,construction workers,chaiwallahs etc living hand to mouth.And the girls among them will not even be so fortunate.Heaven knows if they will even reach adolescence before being subjected to child marriages,dowry deaths,trafficking,prostitution,domestic violence and also left with no chance of independent living.This is how pathetic the condition of the country is and these are the very people for whom quotas were meant to improve the lives of. We have had quotas for nearly 60 years now and today we have even more people demanding quotas than 60 years ago.Ironic since if the quota policy was working why do we see so much inequality today.These quotas were supposed to improve the living conditions of those people I've mentioned above which clearly they have not.So if this isn’t proof that quotas aren’t working then what is? All this has done is the creamy layers(and their successive generations) in the disadvantaged groups are getting an unfair advantage over other hardworking people of the country.This creamy layer is unfairly using an advantage not meant for them when the people for whom these quotas are meant for never complete school.
Education has changed the way i look at things.I have learnt to do things only when i love to do it.i have actually loved learning chemistry,mathematics,physics and literature.I didn’t study those subjects since i had to study them to get a good job or any other reason that is usually given.I wish every kid in the country would be so fortunate to experience what i have done and also feel what it is to be taught by great teachers.Today i have the gift of independent thought and opinion which i suspect majority of Indians don't have.This is primarily why mindless following of senseless political party policies enjoy such huge successes.Since majority of the population do not have any opinions regarding national issues,these self appointed “guardians of Indian polity “ read-Indian politicians deem it their right to propagate their illogical political propaganda and quota politics.These people are not interested in educating the masses.In fact they would prefer not to educate them at all since independent opinion breeds weakening of their support bases-vote banks(uneducated faceless Indians).Hence education is the panacea to most ills that plague our country.
Empower our children(female included) with education and independence.Teach them the right way to live.Teach them to dream and give them them the courage to go in new directions.Open up new avenues of thinking.Change mindsets with education not quotas.Change lives with affirmative action and not regressive politics.Change the world with superior thought and not primitive violence.I wish such common sense prevailed among politicians.But until that happens i hope everyone of us can make a difference in our country in our own small way whenever we can and in whatever form we can impart.
Raghuraj S. Hegde
