Yet Another Reservation....

8th March, 2010… It was the upper house of parliament in India and yet another bill for reservation was presented. This time it was on the basis of gender disparity in India. The reasons given by the two largest parties of India in this regard is women empowerment as if they will be given the right to formulate laws that work in the direction of improving women’s plight in India.
In a country like India where party view is above any individual’s view and if you stray, you will be shown the way out ( as in the case of Jaswant Singh) , will this reservation make any impact in the still male dominated upper and lower houses, is yet to be seen….. but as the history of this country suggests… It is not going to achieve any significant gain on the part of those women who are the rightful heirs of this reservation.
Moreover the reservations have had a disunifying affect on the society since it’s inception. At the time of independence Indian society was divided into a number of groups like Brahmins, Kayasthas, Rajput and so on. This rift has lessened over the years since all have been reduced to the same level due to equality of law for all of them; but the rift between these groups and SC’s has increasd and no parameter can measure it because this is what is inside and comes out when the equality is denied. General Category people from not so well to do family who don’t have a job or are denied admission in a university because they have something less than a magic percentage and their counterparts who are SC’s from a well to do family are given admissions at quite low percentages, gives birth to the feeling of prejudice in them and this is then transferred to the next generation and to the society. Instead of targeted audience, those who are benefitting are the well to do sections of the society. The rift keeps on increasing and the poor and the needy’s still venture for a fruitful assistance.
A few days back I got a mail from one of my female friend depicting the current state of society with respect to girls that appealed to the in laws of the girl to be considerate towards girls for they too are in this competitive world, competing against the boys and girls, get highly educated and secure good professional positions, yet they are expected to cook good food from the day one of their marriage, look after the parents of the boys, care for the children etc etc , all this with a job earning a handsome amount for the family, no extended office sessions, their male colleagues are seen with a suspicion on girls character and this goes on…. This is the plight of a middle income families wherein less resources put undue pressure on girl. I mentioned this mail here just to ensure that our leaders who are supporting this reservation should peep into the society and look at the ground level reality. What advantage did the reservation of women in the panchayats have had? The women in village panchayats still function as puppets in the hands of their husbands except for a few exceptions.
This reservation seems to start another rift between genders with no good to the society. Instead of starting efficient schemes for girls, giving them meaningful education, educating women in their rights and monitoring them properly, the leaders are unnecessarily engaging themselves in the melodrama at the centrestage of the country.