Slog at work, get beaten at home

The Women's reservation bill is a joke. Men in power (read Parliament) oppose it time and again. What I write further is not about the reservation bill though. Read on and you will know.

When a woman worker approaches the National Commission for Women saying a pilot molested her mid-air during a scuffle, NCW goes ahead and gives a `clean chit' saying she was only manhandled.

Am yet to understand the difference between manhandled and molested in legalese. In our society that takes makes even women's safety from lecherous men the responsibility of women, those women who work at Call Centres are looked at with suspicion. If a woman worker after putting together a story in all dedication at a late night hour rides back home only to get killed, her state's chief minister passes a casual remark implying she shouldn't have dared to ride alone on Delhi roads at that hour.

Women who do public transport commute wear lipstick and other cosmetics that enhance their personality. But a top party functionary had the cheek to call women protestors after last year's 26/11, `some women wearing lipstick and powder', as if, women who wear cosmetics have no right to speak up, and as if wearing cosmetics is limited to classes.

The debate around working women and their travails, their low pay at work, is a different dimension to the problem altogether. The core issue is that income from woman in a household is not considered, `the bread-winner' income, but `contribution' to the family needs, unlike a man's `head of family' tag that is presumed irrespective of whether he earns, or not.

Insecurity among the men in a family, or at workplace, is a given, and considered, `normal'. It's why pressure on women mounts soon after their maternity leave to opt out of the job. It's why late hours at work translate the language to `irresponsible bahu' among unsupportive families. After all, her `primary duty' is to cook and feed the family, not `enjoy' at office!

A two weeks old report published in The Hindu dulls the remnants of hope for Indian women who work their hours away at work and at home.

Here goes:

The study carried out between 2005 and 2006 on 750 married women aged between 16 and 25 in Bangalore, found that those who became employed during that time had an 80 per cent higher chance of being abused by their husbands than women who remained unemployed.

The report goes on to say further:

Social disapproval, a sense of inadequacy and frustration and related stressors associated with living in poverty may increase the likelihood of men perpetrating domestic violence,” she reasoned.

Fifty-seven per cent of women participating in the study reported having experienced domestic violence prior to joining the study.

What on earth is `empowerment' if women have to die on duty and get blamed for it, and return home too, to face the lash of their insecure men?