Gender justice for Muslim women

The BJP government ruling India today came to power because, PM Modi could succeed in convincing the voters about his ability to bring in changes in the economic scenario prevailing just before election through a number of tall promises made during his  hectic election campaign. The youth were promised jobs, the corporates were assured of freedom from tax terrorism   and from bureaucratic delays, the foreign investors were guaranteed of ease of doing business in India and the citizens of India were made to believe in the BJP party’s ability to  remove corruption from this nation which reached its height during the last phase of the then ,Congress government. But after 30 months of rule, the people have realised that all the promises made in the most thundering voice were not anywhere near the promises made. Under -performance has made the opposition parties bolder in criticisms and the media is giving the  true picture of the economic scenario. The total effect of the disappointments to the voters will surely , reflect on the next General Election verdict. Hence, the BJP was in search of a tool to divert the people’s attention from its dismal economic performance and it found it in the threat to introduce Uniform Civil Code for India.

 We should not forget that, it is the RSS which sets the social and cultural agenda for the present government, the BJP party, its political agenda and the BJP government it’s economic agenda. We are very aware of the components of the social and the cultural agenda of the RSS. One such component is uniform civil code. When the nation is desperately waiting for economic reforms and getting disappointed with the government performance, the government has opted to divert the attention of the people by creation social tension in the country through attempts to introduce  the Uniform Civil Code, knowing very well the consequences .  

Even if, the government has the noble intention of gifting the Muslim women of India gender justice through reforms in the Muslim personal law, The BJP party  is not the suitable agency to do it. At the time of partition, the congress government in charge of the affairs of the nation had promised to the Muslims who opted to stay In India that, they would be allowed to practice their personal laws as per the shariyah rules. Now this promise is conveniently forgotten and under the pretext of gender justice. s Does the BJP government claim ,that ,  all the women in the other communities in India are enjoying gender justice? ? Are they under the impression that there is no polygamy and torture of divorce among non Muslims?  Are they ignorant about the facts  that way back, it was Islam, which gave right to Muslim women regarding consent for marriage, right to divorce, right to remarry, right to inherit properly , right   to seek knowledge and the right to practice professions? Other communities get these rights only from 20^th century through enactment of certain laws . Moreover how can the Prime minister talk of gender justice to Muslim women,when he has the history behind him of closing his eyes when ,so many Muslim women were widowed, Muslim girls made orphans and young Muslim women were specially targeted for rape ?

 One advice to the Muslim community. If we fail to keep our home in order , outsiders will peep in and interfere . How many years back the Sachaar Committee had reported about the utter backwardness of the Muslim women ? Any of the community political or religious leaders  bothered  about taking efforts to improve their status? The Muslim women had been complaining  about triple talaq for a long time . Any one cared to remove this injustice ? It is ve y funny that .in every media discussion and in religious gatherings.  the triple talaq is condemned as un Islamic practice since it is against shariya. But. The men    do not want any  law against it  and total removal of it from Muslims personal law practices. What is the reason the women of India wonder.  Similarly the arguments regarding polygamy  can not be trivialised by quoting the rules to be maintained by men when he takes more than one wife and  by arguing that it is the other communities which have more number of polygamy cases in reality . No woman with a rational mind and dignity will accept this  situation happily because, the religion has given the sanction to men in this matter.   How many of the religious practices men follow strictly for them to claim that, in polygamy matter they are only following shariyah rules ? Therefore, let us accept the fact  that, there  are certain imperfections in the personal law practices among Muslims, the  Hindus and Christians  . Where ever it is possible , without interfering with the shariyah  laws , reforms can be introduced  but, not unilaterally  by Muslim law board or some other boards. It should be done ,  after a wider and deeper discussion among the religious. Political, business leaders , Islamic scholars and academicians . These discussion forums should include knowledgeable  women representatives too  . Side by side , every women group which is gathering periodically to day in cities and towns in different areas to create awareness about  the meaning and interpretation of the quranic passages and the  hadhiths and shariyah  rules should also create awareness among them about the new problem  created by this government and educate them about the various aspects and components of the Muslim  personal law. Muslim women today are living in a blissful state of ignorance about many  matters regarding  their life and about changes that are taking place in India   today . Education them on these matters is the need of the hour .

The government is giving wider publicity about the questionnaire circulated to know the views of the people on common civil code and personal laws of the different communities  .How many Muslims particularly women who answer attempt to answer these questions ,know the minute religious rules guiding the personal laws  for them to answer correctly? What is going to be the sample size of this survey ? How authentic   is going to be the data collection?   What would be the degree of transparency regarding  the survey process? We  all know  that, in India statistics is collected carelessly and presented very carefully and manipulated as per the hidden agenda  of the surveys . Hence nobody is going to trust the outcome this survey .     Any effort to bring a UCC by the government would be i seen by minority groups  surely, with suspicion. Many fear that,  the UCC will reflect the norms of the majority community and destroy the multiplicity and diversity of smaller groups.

One advice to the government is, concentrate on fulfilling your election promises and leave the  matters regarding the personal laws to the respective communities. If your ambition is to become Asian leader beating China concentrate on it . Bring  back all the black money hidden outside India and distribute among the citizens as promised during the election campaign.   Any  imperfections in their personal laws of the different religious groups  can be  corrected by the respective communities after free and fair debates  . They themselves  ,can take efforts to render gender justice within the limits of their personal laws. Government interference in this matter is unwarranted and unnecessary. Let it spend its energy and resources on productive matters and leave the perfect implementation of the personal laws to the various communities in India.

My letter published in the Hindu

The authors of the article,  “ still seriously hungry and poor “published in the Hindu last week claim that , “ newer skills will hold the key for translating growth into jobs.” Are we not turning out millions of trained youth from the innumerable polytechnics , vocational training  centers ,engineering colleges , teacher training institutes, para medical training centers , agricultural engineering institutes ? These are the people on whom the educational and training  investments  have been made by the poor and middle class families with the hope of getting out their families from poverty and hunger. These youth are rotting due to the jobless growth of India gifted by the multinationals  and corporate giants of India. They suffer the indignity of poverty for years together , due to unemployment , underemployment and disguised employment. The solution to the problem of hunger and poverty lies in resurrection of  the labour intensive, small and medium industries which showed a huge job generation potential between seventies and  eighties . Turning the blind eye to all their fundamental needs and thereby closing the best  job avenues to  the skilled youth is the biggest mistake the government of India is committing .All the concessions and efforts towards ease business extended to Indian and  foreign corporate sector will only generate jobless growth.

Uniform civil code

If the government of India feels that, gender justice has been achieved in all the communities in India except  the Muslim community . The starting point to reach that goal would be to  give special privileges to Muslim girls like more scholarships, hostels , giving easy and concessional  bank credit when Muslim women entrepreneurs   approach the banks for starting or expanding their household enterprises .  The Sachaar committee  had reported about the economic , political and social backwardness of Muslims in general and Muslim women in particular long back , but no concrete efforts were taken by different governments to elevate their status. The present  government  can take various special steps to elevate their status. The imperfections in personal laws , if any, can be taken care by the respective communities, especially when some Muslim women have sought justice from the courts in certain matters .

Each religion has scholars and community leaders and they can address the grievances of women seeking justice and dignity and sort out the confusion regarding the religious codes on personal matters  within themselves . In a nation like India where, every community has specific  religious instructions regarding a personal matters  and violation of them is considered as sin, any attempt towards  uniform civil code will affect  communal harmony . It is an unnecessary task for the government . Instead it can put all it’s energy in controlling the growing violence against all the  Indian women  and their exploitation in different forms and take efforts to empower them politically, socially ,economically and legally  and thus achieve higher global rank for India in gender balance   instead, of wrongly projecting that,  only Muslim women do not enjoy equity and equality in their life.  let the reforms in personal laws come from within the communities . Pubic private partnership in this matter will not be beneficial .

Towards a National Health Policy

Towards a National Health Policy

 The supreme court has given a timely  direction   to the central and state governments regarding  the conduct of sterilisation camps since, considerable number of deaths have occurred due to family planning surgery performed in the sterilisation camps  is India’s population policy has always been women centric. A comparison between  data on tubectomies  and vasectomies proves this point. The attitude of callously treating  the young mothers deaths  in sterilization camps  by giving inadequate monetary compensation is injustice to the families which have been losing  young women leaving  husbands   and young children to manage their households . Education and employment of women have already proved to have reduced fertility rate . But to make these positive steps more effective ,certain other measures like, liberal scholarships for higher education  , more number of women hostels,  easy access to education loans , flexi time, part-time, work from home options and baby care centers in the work campuses are to be provided on a large scale to women. Women , especially rural women are to be educated about the various methods of spacing of children , because sterilization is imposed on them  without giving choices to other means of reducing fertility rate . The Population division of the UN has understood the reason for greater reliance on sterilization and hence  , has noted down the mismatch   between the various  population control measures  in India .

Karnataka versus Tamil Nadu

Due to the intensification of the agitation against the court order to release water to Tamil Nadu from Cavery, several man day are lost , valuable property like buses and cars are destroyed  , Schools and colleges remain closed , tourism and normal life are affected and  business in both the states is affected . Yet the Karnataka government and the central government remained passive for several days and only they woke up from deep slumber . Why are  the Tamil Nadu governments which have ruled this states so far ,never considered the option pf improving the water supply position in the state through water conservation methods and and water generation methods from new sources as the Israel and gulf countries do? Why does the Karnataka government thinks that, it can tolerate disobedience to court orders ? They belong to Indian Federation or an independent island which happened to be located   within the  Indian territory . The repetition of this problem year after year is very irritation and speaks volumes about the standard of the governance of the Federal structure in India

Tens things which Indians seems to be fond of doing .

• Mercilessly bargaining with poor vendors during purchases, but , paying grandly, without even a murmur the unreasonable charges of the big hotels and the stores .
• Talking loudly and endlessly private matters in public places through cell phones with least botheration about  in onvenience to others
• Spitting, urinating and throwing garbage  anywhere and everywhere with least concern for environmental cleanliness
• Constantly running to shops whenever any rebate is announced without understanding the economics involved in such rebates and thus ending up with accumulation of unwanted things at home and wasting money 
• Comparing their own children’s performance in any field constantly with better performers of other's children with least concern for the impact it creates in children’s minds
• Accumulating all the used and unwanted things at home,  in the hope, one day it might be useful with least inclination to clear things through giving them to those who are in need . 
• Keeping their own homes with utmost cleanliness and bother least about environmental cleanliness.
• Participating in corruption discussions actively and attack the bribe takers while remaining  silent about their role in bribe giving.
• Complimenting anything  related to foreign countries and condemn  everything related to India.
•  Always obsessed about women's dressing sense and  give tirelessly  moral instructions about their appearance in public

Court's verdict on Sindur project, West Bengal

Left front parties always claim that they are on the side of the poor and marginalised sections like small farmers ,unorganised labourers and against the exploitation  of the poor by richer sections in any form .  How then , their government in West Bengal when ruled by thew left did such an injustice to the agricultural community in spite , of their strong and prolonged struggle and used brutal methods to force them to part with their tiny pieces of  lands , a source of their livelihood to favour one corporate  house?  We are happy that ,at last justice is delivered to Singur farmers . The apprehension that corporate investment in new project will be hindered is not needed . They can afford to buy land through justifiable methods as they procure other resources for their project through direct purchases . It is a relief to the farmers that, the new Land  and Acquisition Act will put an end  the unholy alliance of the corporate houses  and the government in power resulting the exploitation of the land owners in the name of industrialisation .The left parties should realise that because thay have deviated from their basic ideologies, the voters have lost faith in their concern fort the down trodden