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(Oh Unfortunate women what sin did you commit that you should have been born in this blessed country where men have no sensitivity? – Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar said these words after he was exasperated with the opposition that he faced from the Sanskrit scholars (learned men in his movement for widow-remarriage]
By R.M. Pal
This is not a scholarly paper – I did not mean it to be so. These are rather random notes from a man of sensitivity. I have here made a plain, forthright, and unsophisticated effort, in a manner of lie-hunting, to draw attention of those who want to reorient our society and social values. It is an unpleasant and unpopular task. To call a spade a spade is no longer the aim of our establishment intellectuals who have now entered the “human rights industry and trade” in a big way and opened “shops”. All of them are concerned about child labour, they shed tears for the girl child, they get a lot of money from foreign funding agencies and also from our government, but one hardly comes across anyone who would go to the roots of the problem. I’ll get back to this aspect later. Secondly, it is not an exhaustive study; it is no more than a sketch. Let me also add that I have tried to focus on the subject with a view to urging on activists to create a new society in which a human being will be recognized as a person. Is the girl child recognized as a person?
The ground realities do not offer much hope for the girl child. I must be forgiven if I sound pessimistic. Young people, if only they could take to lie-hunting, can bring about a change – change for the better. Let me repeat, lie-hunting is a difficult task – one can practise it only if one has no other ambition in life except to change the society, to create a new man and woman. But if “changers” of society too become “professional activists” and open “shops”, then people of my age have reason to be pessimistic.
I have one more observation to make. Although the girl child ought to be a separate focus area, I use women, girls, and the girl child interchangeably. One can’t avoid it, particularly in South Asian countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It will be clear presently. I mention this in the light of the Beijing Conference and the Platform for Action adopted there, and subsequent progress report made by the Commission on the Status of Women, March 1998. the Platform for Action maintained that an improvement in the situation of the girl child is necessary to bring about a change in the status of the adult woman. While I am not opposed to the priorities that were defined in the Beijing Conference, I am not focusing on this aspect – it is not within the purview of my emphasis on compulsory education and the socio-cultural factor.
II
The condition of the girl child, relating to human rights violations, has been determined by our religions and their approach to women in general. Social injustice in our country is a product of the given social structure of our country including age-old taboos. The three major religions of India – Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity – treat women as inferior to men, often on the authority of divine scriptures and sanctions. According to all socio-religious traditions, women and required to find their fulfillment in motherhood and domesticity. Their duty is to render service to the husband, his family and to the children. We are warned, by both men and women (all of them are English educated women belonging to the middle class and upper class), the foundation of society would be shaken if women expressed dissatisfaction at the treatment accorded to them. Furthermore, we must not talk in terms of equality between man and woman; we should talk in terms of companionship than equality. Sermons like this come not from holy loafers but from modern rishis (I may here quote from Prof. Romila Thaper’s excellent article ‘Indian Women’ from the Volume ‘Indian Women’ edited by Devika Jain, “In the legal texts, however, in the dharma-sastra and similar literaturte, the blanket term woman is used, irrespective of the social origins or status of any woman. It is interesting that whereas these texts take great care to classify men with minutiae of distinctions, women are generally treated as a uniform category. Furthermore the status of woen as a whole is clearly defined, for they are unambiguously equated with the sudras. Even the Gita places women, vaisyas and sudras in the same category and describes them all as being of sinful birth. According to another text the punishment for killing either a woman or a sudra is indentical. Perhaps the most grueling of all is the treatment of the widow, which at times borders on the inhumane and this is particularly disconcerting, coming as it does, from the sastras of a culture which laid so much stress on respecting and caring for the aged. The subservience of women is precisely summed up in the Manu Dharmasastra where it is stated that a woman should never be independent. As a daughter she is under the surveillance of her father, as a wife of her husband and as a widow of her son’). They remind us, over and over again, on the authority of Manu that man is the protector of the weaker vessel which he owns, and that our ideal is and ought to be “familyism”. They add that it is indecent for women to have any grievance. Let us accept the fact that the laws laid down by Manu ages ago are still operative. How does one reconcile this outlook with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
Our intellectuals, both ancient and modern, have fabricated many fables about the exalted position of women in our society portraying them as goddesses. The depressing position of the girl child is to be viewed in the light of the place a woman occupies in our society.
Another social factor, which must be taken into account, is the institution of caste which has been a stumbling block for social justice and human rights. The girl child belonging to the depressed section of our society is the most unfortunate victim of this system. The figures that I give later are indicative of this. It is, however, said by quite a large number of “intellectual” that the caste system does not exist any more, or has started disappearing. Search your heart – have caste identities disappeared? There is no limit in our country to holding up a fiction to obscure facts. Let us refresh our memory. In Delhi University where the anti-reservation stir started, in a meeting of Academic Council, to discuss an item on reservation for SC/ST, some faculty members received thunderous applause when they declared that “mother goddess Saraswati’s clothes will be desecrated” if SC/ST candidates became teachers. In a number of women’s colleges protest banners – against Mandal – declared that upper caste girls would now be required to marry boys from lower castes! That was a few years ago. Let me, therefore, give an account of what was advocated in a recently held seminar organized by the Philosophy Department of the Punjab University at Chandigarh (as reported in Mainstream, April 18, 1998). The argument put forward in favour of the system is as follows: “minus the role of politicians, the caste system was growing naturally. Shudras never revolted because they had no reason to revolt. They were getting equal treatment. They were an integrated part of society. They were satisfied because they knew that whatever disabilities they suffered were the result of their own wrong deeds in their previous lives. Except in the case of Vaishyas and Shudras, the Shastras allow others to have more than one wife. One is allowed to marry a girl of a lower caste except a Shudra. Where the woman had the right to be the legal wife of a higher caste person, there is no torture etc. ..It was also suggested that Brahmins might be offered five times the wages given to Shudras for doing the work which the latter do,” and so on.
This leads us to another aspect, reincarnation and the theory of karma, which is directly relevant to the plight of the girl child and societal violation of human rights. The doctrine of reincarnation is the counter-part of the doctrine of karma. “The future of anyone is determined by his present actions, and these again have been determined by his acts in the past. Another ideal of Indian spiritualism is to regard this chain of the law of karma as a vicious circle, and to endeavour to find a way out to salvation” (“Crime and Karma” by M.N. Roy). These two ideals - reincarnations and karma – forge the chain of social slavery for the masses. The karma doctrine teaches us to reconcile to our fate. “But, on the other hand, it may make (us) more discriminating about (our) acts in the present and the future. The failure to be rewarded for meritorious acts naturally discourages conformity with the established standards of virtuosity and good behaviour. Therefore, a higher ideal is set up, so that one may not hanker after the reward, and behave in the prescribed manner permissible for the maintenance of the established social order” (ibid). The principle of division of society into castes is upheld in this manner. In short, the doctrine seeks to persuade the poor, the depressed, the oppressed, and the exploited to reconcile their lot to suffering, sacrifice, love and voluntary poverty – all that signify complete surrender, and absence of the spirit of revolt. “These doctrines of spiritualist philosophy were expounded by the rishis of old with the object of making the masses feel themselves responsible for their misery, and thus reconcile to it,” (ibid). This doctrine – submission to fate – is spiritually corrupt.
Our system has allowed certain social privileges to the upper castes, especially to the Brahmins. For example, even if a Brahmin is illiterate, he deserves the respect of all others placed lower to him in the social scale – they must all bow before him, for that is divinely sanctioned. If these established rules are not implicitly obeyed, the structure of India would break down. In short, India would be denationalized – this is what has conditioned our people.
III
Deprivation of basic education is one of the worst forms of human rights violations. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) specifically refers to the violation of the right to development which includes the right to education, among other rights. I shall concentrate on the right to education which is basic to all other rights.
I may now draw your attention to an important document, Human Development in South Asia, 1998
Prepared by the Human Development Centre of Karachi with the active assistance of and financial support from many international funding agencies including UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, ILO, World Bank – it was released in March 1998. The figures given in the Report remain valid even today.
I give below a few salient figures from this report in order to indicate the magnitude of human rights violation relating to the girl child:
With a female literacy rate of 36%, the lowest in the world, South Asia has entered the 21st century with 243 million illiterate women, who represent two-thirds of the region’s adult female population. (1) This 36% is about one-half of the average for the developing world and compares poorly with 48% in Sub-Saharan Africa and 95% in East Asia excluding China. (2) The gap between the primary school enrolment rates of boys and girls is 19 percentage points in South Asia, compared to only 5 percentage points in development countries. (3) Girls spend, on average, only one-third as much time in schools as boys. (4) More than 40% of girls drop out of primary schools in South Asia, compared to only 7% in the Arab States. (5) Less than one-third of teachers at the primary level are females in South Asia, compared to one-half in the development world. The report, however, highlights countries like Sri Lanka and the Maldives that have achieved gender parity in primary education. Literacy rate is high in these two countries. The question that we have to answer is, if Sri Lanka and the Maldives can do this why can’t we? I’ll get back to this later.
With regard to India, some salient statistics from the Report are given below:
India has the largest illiterate population in the world. Vulnerable groups are often deprived of educational opportunities. The literacy rate varies from 90% for rich urban males to mere 17% for poor, rural, scheduled caste women. SC/ST have literacy rate of 40%, compared to merely 60% for higher caste Hindus. The enrolment rate of 6 to 14-year-old Muslim children is 62% compared to 77% for non-SC Hindus. Poverty is not the cause of India’s illiteracy. According to official sources 43% is 26 percentage points below the male literacy, 69%. The amount allotted to elementary education has fallen from 56% in the First Plan (1951-56) to 29% in the Seventh Plan (1985-90).
Let us have look at some of our neighbours:
Pakistan: Pakistan is among the most illiterate countries within South Asia. Currently, the adult literacy rate hovers around 38% (50% for males and only 24% for females) – one of the lowest in the world. Pakistan is the only country in South Asia where public expenditure on education, as a proportion of GNP, has gone down since 1990. Girls are seldom allowed to study in schools where male teachers are predominant.
Bangladesh: Bangladesh started with a very low adult literacy rate (26% in 1974) but it has succeeded in rapidly increasing this ratio 38% by 1995. The gross enrolment ratio rose from 73% in 1990 to 95% in 1996. The net enrolment ratio, which is a better indicator, rose to 78% by 1996. One of Bangladesh’s major achievements has been to achieve near gender-parity in primary enrolment. Over 62% of the adult population are illiterate. The female literacy rate is one-half of the male literacy rate.
Sri Lanka: Literacy rate is 90%. Primary school net enrolment is 100% and the participation rate is 90% from year 1 to 13 year of schooling, females account for 49.7% of the total enrolment and outnumber males in higher classes. Female literacy is 87%, and male literacy is 93%. Sri Lanka has always given high priority to investment in education, earmarking 3-4% of its GNP to education during the last four decades.
IV
As I said earlier, the girl child belonging to SC/ST categories is the most vulnerable. By way of illustration, let me mention the figures of West Bengal which, we are told, is ruled by the most “progressive” forces in the country. According to Manpower Profile of India 1997, West Bengal ranks way behind – 42.21% of the State’s SC population is literate, female percentage being much lower. I refer to West Bengal specifically for the State has now been ruled by the Marxists for almost 30 years. When it comes to the question of compulsory elementary education, the leftists, too, like other political formations, treat this subject with utter contempt.
Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze, (in their book, India: Economic Development and Social Opportunities, OUP, 1995) offer reasons for the willful and criminal neglect in the field of basic education, as a result of which the girl child suffers the most; “The traditionally elitist tendencies of the ruling cultural and religious traditions in India may have added to the political problem. Both Hinduism and Islam, have, in different ways, had considerable inclination towards, religious elitism, with reliance respectively on Brahmin priests and on powerful Mullahs, and while there have been many protest movements against each (the medieval poet Kabir fought against both simultaneously), the elitist hold is quite strong in both these religions. This contrasts with the more egalitarian and populist tradition of, say, Buddhism,. Buddhist countries have had much higher levels of basic literacy than societies dominated by Hinduism or Islam. In India both ancient and modern biases shape our policies reflecting prejudices of class divisions as well as of traditional cultures. The difficulty in getting even left-wing parties interested in combating inequalities in education relates to the general social atmosphere in India, including the nature of the leadership of different parties which takes some major disparities as simply ‘given’ and not particularly worth battling against in view of other – perceived to be more ‘pressing’ – challenges.” This is precisely the reason why I referred to this aspect earlier in this paper.
Let us be frank. There are not many takers of compulsory elementary education. I have had occasions to discuss with Gandhians and humanists and I have formed the impression that they too feel that it is not possible to implement the provision of Article 45 of the Constitution in the foreseeable future. A few years ago, one of the most important Gandhian intellectuals and activists, Dr. J. P. Naik (the virtual author of the Education Commission Report) wrote in a report brought out under the auspices of Citizens for Democracy, under the guidance of Jayaprakash Narain and V.M. Tarkunde, that compulsory primary education cannot be implemented by the State because of widespread poverty! Some time later, Mr. V.M. Tarkunde, a radical humanist and well-known human rights activist submitted a charter of demands to the NDA government, “People’s Minimum Programme for Prompt Action by the New Government”. It was prepared by Mr. Tarkunde on behalf of the Radical Humanist Association of which he was leader – which states, inter alia, “resources should be made available to provide free primary education”. He did not include, “compulsory” for he thought it is not possible to make it compulsory for legal and other reasons! Furthermore, ‘primary’ means education upto class V, while the Constitution promises free compulsory education upto the age of 14, that is, upto class VIII.
Committed activists are not shocked; they are angry. Genuine activists will never surrender to Karma, to fate. They will be in minority, but will defy the majority, if they are worth their salt, knowing fully well that in the present cultural and social climate they will be defeated. Remember that there is a pleasure in defying.
One need not be surprised or shocked, again, at the then Human Resource Development Minister’s (Murli Manohar Joshi) policy statement, even before the Prime Minister sought the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha; ‘efforts will be made to provide primary education upto class V’. Note, how conveniently one forgets the constitutional provision! But can we blame politicians when NGO leaders too think that compulsory elementary education cannot be introduced because of poverty and other legal reasons. Poverty can be eliminated only when children receive at least basic education ( I would refer you to Amartya Sen’s and Jean Dreze’s book mentioned above).
I have laid great stress on the social aspect of human rights violation. All of us are familiar with daily occurrences of violations. Let me give a couple of instances in order to indicate the magnitude and seriousness of the social aspect.
“What should alarm us the most, however, is the increasing incidence of violence against women: rape, trafficking of women and girl children, bride burning and dowry deaths, not to mention female infanticide… (Here is) a community like the Muslims being under constant threat and living in fear; and upper caste crimes against Dalit men and women… It is a long list. In each case victims are hurt and deprived. The experience is evaluated not by the numbers of victims but by the intensity of suffering inflicted. It is in this context that we refer to the widely known cruelties inflicted on Mrs. Bhanwari Devi… That she was raped in the presence of her helpless husband is searing to the soul. But what happened in November 1995 is more painful, more shocking and disturbing; people with sensitivity will find the cry of agony of the victim shriller. Five persons were accused of gangraping Mrs. Bhanwari Devi, a saathin working with Women’s Development Programme of the Rajasthan Government. She was subjected to this cruel humiliation and torture because of her attempt to prevent a child marriage, which was indeed her official duty. But it is against upper cast feudal tradition, especially in Rajasthan. All the accused in the alleged gangrape were acquitted by the District and Sessions Judge of Jaipur in November 1995. some of the reasons for the acquittal are shocking and disturbing. The judge said that taking into account the age of the accused – they were all middle aged – it is inconceivable that suchd people will indulge in rape, for middle-aged persons are ipso facto ‘responsible citizens’ and, therefore, cannot commit such a crime. Another reason advanced by the judge is that the accused belong to the upper castes – one of them is a Brahmin – and, therefore, could not have raped a low caste woman (like Bhanwari Devi). Can another cry of agony be shriller than that of Mrs. Bhanwari Devi?”
VI
Let me quote a passage from Ms. Brijlal Nehru’s presidential address to the annual meeting of the Delhi Women’s conference on 8 November 1936. “The Women’s movement has set to it the task of removing all sex-inequality wherever it exists, so as to bring the happy day of consummation nearer. All sex-discrimination must go whereever it may exist, and as a logical consequence of that, all exploitation must cease.” Mrs. Nehru and her like held on to the pious hope that this discrimination will disappear once the British leave Let it be understood that today’s women’s movement has not waged sex-war; their demand is for the natural right of equality in sex relation in our society. All right thinking men – unfortunately, they are so few – demand this. This is what Dr. Radhakrishnan referred to in 1936, when he said: “Religious bigotry, which treats millions of our countrymen in a senseless and inhuman way, and imposes intolerable disabilities and inconveniences on the womanhood of the country, is a standing danger. It is corruption of the spirit.” Let us accept the fact that traditional Hindu society is very unjust towards women, and that sexual inequality and exploitation have crippled us. Our women’s movement must have women like Kamal (heroin of Sarat Chatterjee’s famous novel, Sesh Prasna) who pulls down all gods, customs and traditions, and tries to live like an emancipated woman.
What I have indicated in this paper – my diagnosis of the social disease – leads to at least one conclusion, namely that there is an urgent need for a revolution of traditional values, and also an urgent need for a critical revaluation of our tradition and society. If traditional ideas and values and institutions deprive women of elementary human rights, these must be discarded and demolished. This is where we have to start. All other programmes including legislative measures will follow. Let us remember that no legislative measure can ever succeed without preparing the soil. This is the task of an iconoclast who has to take to lie-hunting to which I referred earlier.
If my diagnosis is correct, the perspectives and proposals require to be carefully considered. It is for social/dissident intellectual activists to reach a better understanding – better than what I have done –of the situation, the ground reality, and give proposals that may be taken up for implementation.
In any case, if our activists, specially in the women’s movement, want to make their presence felt, they must speak the language of reason and science, have a scientific outlook, have the courage to court unpopularity. They must be dissident intellectuals and iconoclasts. They must build up a movement, and all movements, as we know, are backed by a philosophy – like the Renaissance, the philosophy of which was humanism, if you think, it is a tall order, I can only submit that there is no short cut, and progress and solution is not lying in the corner for us to catch.