Seminar on ‘Countering Gender Violence’
Life should not become a habit. There are set patterns for men and women in society that we blindly follow. A violent act is equally painful to a man or a woman.“But, we women do not register any kind of protest to violence. We take it lying down because it has become a habit with us,” Kavignar Salma, Chairperson, State Social Welfare Board, Tamil Nadu, said here on Tuesday. Inaugurating a seminar on ‘Countering Gender Violence’ organised by the Centre for Women’s Studies of Bharathiar University, she said violence need not be only a physical act. Even denying a woman her rights amounted to violence.“A society or any particular community which does not accept a woman as an equal, or does not give equal opportunities for her to get educated or become independent, cannot call itself developed in any way. We pride ourselves on the fact that we are developed in many spheres; but foeticide and infanticide are still prevalent.“We quietly accept this because this has also become a habit,” Ms. Salma said.
Discrimination should not be viewed only in the form of dowry, foeticide, infanticide, and denial of education and employment. Anaemia and malnutrition in women were also signs of discrimination against women, she said. “It has become an accepted fact that women are secondary citizens,” she observed.She called for gender equality in society and urged women to be aware of their rights. She observed that in another 20 years the number of women being born would have dwindled to nothing.She attributed this to modern medical facilities the helped identify the sex of the baby. When the couple got to know that it was a girl baby in the womb, the pregnancy was conveniently terminated. The in-thing was to have a single male child, she said.
G. Thiruvasagam, Vice-Chancellor, Bharathiar University, said that men always held pride of place in our society. Citing Indian statistics, he said, “Every 54 minutes a girl is raped; every 26 minutes a girl is molested, every 51 minutes a girl is teased, every 102 minutes there is a dowry death, and every 7 minutes a crime is committed against a girl.” Taking examples of the results of the X standard, Plus Two and Bharathiar University results (61 out of the 67 rank holders were girls), he asserted that such capable women should be treated with respect and no violence should be inflicted on them.He also called for reservation to be implemented to enable them to achieve greater heights in life.
