Curiouser and Curiouser !

'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?

'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,

'I don’t know where. . .

'Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,'

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

India feels like the ' wonderland' ,only that most of the times it's a rather murkier version of it !

Just imagine this - "In Bhopal Sindhis have slapped a code of conduct on girls" - to the extent of banning mobile phones and two wheelers to girls of their community ! The trigger to such atrocious bans being the recent elopements of two girls of their community with Muslim boys. The local Sindhi panchayat in Bhopal has asked parents to keep their daughters in check and not give them too much liberty. It even goes on to say " sometimes too much liberty becomes a burden on society".

Whatever be the reason for administering this kind of atrocious moral policing and whatever be the small/local/politically motivated group of young/old people involved in this -

this is REGRESSION. Isn't it true that these days one seems to find that we are actually regressing in a number of basic aspects of life behind the veils of development and democratic freedom.

This issue seems quite trivial at the preliminary level, but deep down we find manifestations of this gender- biasing very prevalent in our country. We have not made any progress, in fact we have regressed quite a long way back in terms of respecting women for what they are.

Everyday there seems to be mountains of evidence for this..so much so, that this has become more of the norm than the exception. Another example that highlights the callousness with which women get treated in India, be her at the lowest rungs of society or at the highest echelons of corporate life - " In the new appraisal system for the Indian Administrative sevice, there are specific queries for women on their menstrual cycle and the last confinement"...All this while the male counterparts had no questions regarding any of their health issues !

Is it then an exaggeration that I call India the wonderland ? It is here, and only here that you will find such episodes of high drama that feed and poison a system that is already corrupt beyond its limits , inflicted with systemic infections both of the mind and the body.

Where to India ...?

The last two days' newspapers in Mumbai carried two news which I really had to write about since the new age mantra is about "India and development" - the cause for much excitement within and without India.

The first of these news items says " Sex Education banned in the state( Maharastra)" and the second one goes " Mumbai tops in suicide by homemakers".

Maharastra is the fifth state in India to ban sex education in schools..the other states being Kerala ( imagine our torch bearer for literacy doing this ! ) , Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and I am sure, others to follow the trend very soon. And to top it all, even the Central board schools(CBSE, ICSE ) have to follow the state dictum here.

The reason being cited for such a move is that sex education in schools is " an assault on Indian values" and that it is a means of " imposing western culture on the state".

Let us ask a few basic questions here :

The legislators who talk about the assault on Indian values and aping the western culture have very conveniently disregarded our cultural heritage or do not have any learning and respect for these values. On the one hand , we boast about Kamasutra and Vatsyayana's contribution to the world, and here we are giving in to false impositions of moral policing by a bunch of ignoramus.

In deciding this issue, have they ever asked what is being taught in sex education, and why is it required ? Do they really have an idea about how many adolescents fall prey to wrong and incorrect information, or lack of correct knowledge ? Do they know that approximately 5.7 million adults ( age 15-49 yrs) who lived in India, are living with HIV and the counter ticking very very fast? Did they consult any child psychologist or for that matter any of the stake holders in this matter - parents, teachers, principals, students before taking such a decision ? So much so for democracy !!

Talking about imposing western culture in the state, why don't they first do something about the media which seems to churn out enough and more of mind - sickening movies & music videos all targeted at this adolescent population ( my views on freedom of expression is for another day's blog) ! If that is not corrupting the yound minds, then what is ??? Or maybe they think that children will not go wayward by watching such soft porn churned out mindlessly by our remix gurus and commercial cinema producers and will only be interested in such matters once they teach it in schools!!!

How much more lopsided can the state machinery be ? And how much can politics and policy strangulate logic and reality ??? Its for you and me to think, since the future of our next generation is in OUR hands and cannot be left to the political machinery !

Now for the next news item..this one caught me unawares, but I guess, I was not alarmed at the news...It says Mumbai tops in suicide by homemakers....well, though emphasis is on the fact that Mumbai tops the list, it should be on the fact that " homemakers are the single largest group committing suicide in Mumbai".

It is not the unemployed or professionals or students who top the list - but the simple woman who remains behind the scenes in most of the households here...yes, I do agree that women have progressed immensely in this country, and yes, I do agree that there are more of women professionals and many of those who have jobs and positions which will make men turn green and purple...and yes, I do agree that there are more and more of women who go on to do higher studies in India and abroad...and yes, there are a lot of them who are happy while juggling profession and family...BUT there are a lot more out there , behind the scene....

And while there has been a huge amount of discussions and debates about the women who make it to the frontlines, there have been very few thoughts about these women of the other world....our counterparts...And now they have got the focus on them for all the wrong reasons....

As usual, while I was on my way to work ( which is when I think, I think ), this bit of news kept bothering me...The news article calls this a phenomenon caused by " spillover stress"...( whatever that means)...but somehow the term caught my attention...why spillover...what do they mean by spillover stress...does it mean that the homemaker's stress is only a spillover stress different from others...another case of stereotyping, I believe...

The analysis and opinions by psychologists lists out rising prices, children's education, day-to-day monotony, husband's whims, lack of sleep etc etc as causes for this stress ultimately leading to the drastic step. Well, I agree and I think there is more to it than just these obvious reasons...here she is living in times where everyone is racing ahead, and success is being defined by professional success, fame and money...these symbols and stereotypes being reinforced day in and day out by various media..the saas-bahus of the world, commercial cinema, and all our newsprints with the focus on page 3 showcasing life as one big party and advertisements of creams and treatments making you feel like the "before" in the before-after clips....

Hugh...and here she is struggling to make both ends meet, cooking and cleaning and the daily chores of her life make her age faster than she can afford one of those pricey creams and anti-wrinkle formulae....where will she go if not get depressed...and I am only thankful that the number is only 361 and not more....

This news item is not only about Mumbai and its homemaker women, its just a pointer to where we are headed.....