The Exclusivity of Women Inclusion

Why do acts aiming for inclusion look like exclusion at implementation?

Why Woman Empowerment seems to be a distant dream?

Government policies, as enabling as they seem by design, during on-ground implementation face limitations including modification, manipulation, minimization, exploitation for ulterior benefit. As a result, the goal that these policies are set to achieve, seem ever- distant from being completely achieved.

When INCLUSION in Theory is EXCLUSION in Reality:

I recently attended the W20 Inception Meet- a meeting in which representatives, exclusively women, visited different cities in India (the host of the year) to interact with different women entrepreneurs to understand the challenges they face and discuss on policies relating to economic development. The main agenda of including a separate W20 section in these G20 Meets was to ensure participation of women.

However, what adds to my curiosity, among many others is that, if equal and equitable participation is the goal, why are these meets designed exclusively for women? If equal and equitable participation is the goal, why do we not have representative population of all genders sitting under one roof, having an inclusive discussion on the topic?

During the Public Participation (Janabhagidari) session, why was there a red spotlight on the presence of a male on the stage, quoting, “tolerating a male on a W20 stage”. Do we not then, question the foundation of our attempts at inclusion? How do we expect this resistance and expectation of exclusive treatment will lead us to inclusion?

Isn’t presence of a community an imperative for inclusion to be attained?Being very common sensical, inclusion would be genuinely attained, and I guess the real strife has been for the male and female to sit at a table sharing opinions freely. What has been a strife for generations is men being open to listen to a female on the table and consider her opinion. That brings inclusion, and when a female firmly asserts her opinion in the presence of an audience in a fairly distributed population brings empowerment.

Impact of attempts at Inclusion:

It is an irony that while public buses have one section of seats reserved for women, still women think twice before boarding a bus at night which is occupied only by men. Reservation of seats does not provide a sense of security. Reservations have succeeded, to some extent, in controlling women harassment by distancing the two genders. However, controls actually work towards delaying of harassment, with an increased intensity of impulse. News is enough evidence.

Highlighting vulnerability is not Empowerment:

The provision of security is for those who suffer with a low sense of security, in varying real life contexts. However, the irony is that they do not give a sense of security, rather just highlight insecurity in the minds of the vulnerable group. May it be females, criminals under police custody or the VIPs.

This is how it happens and why did we come about by the argument that the weak become weaker; so do the vulnerable stay under a threat. At time provisions seem to work as just embellishing the insecurities with a coat of glamour.

When the Exclusion becomes EXCLUSIVE:

On the other hand, the effect these reservations have on the male population is the curiosity and attraction towards, not just the women now, but also the seats reserved for women. Men choose to sit or stand in the women’s section (despite availability of seats in the unreserved section) and argue, or wait for a woman to demand her rightful place. It is obvious response to something that is exclusively reserved for a special population. Thus exclusion has become exclusivity and exclusivity leads to curiosity, followed by misuse, abuse and exploitation.

The population excluded from EXCLUSION: Who is excluded, exactly?

Abuse of Policies aiming at Women Empowerment

It is distressing to note that the policies aimed at providing equitable environment for the citizens of the state makes the priveleged section feel excluded out of the distribution of benefits from the government.

Thus, the section identified as weaker in the policy is percieved as privileged in the public, and now, no one anymore wants to really be empowered. Everyone just wants the provisions, irrespective of the purpose they are meant to serve. People would even go as far as change their caste through fake certifications for gaining a share in caste-based reservations, and manipulating policies to exploit the benefits meant for the genfer-based discriminated population (follow discussion in the section: Exploitation for ulterior gains).

Furthermore, it is curious to note that Empowerment is a feeling, and while policies (Ladki Bahin Yojana, for instance) meant for providing petty amounts of cash to the downtrodden (for their financial independence, nutrition and health and rightful opportunity of value for their opinion in the family) are pulled in by women from higher income populations who are in least need of it, or whose needs could be least served by it. Despite the population being needy, it is exploitation of policies that are meant for somebody else.

What does Empowerment mean? How do we define it?

In an interaction with Adv Swami, he questions, “Since 1950, women and children are classified as weaker section. Child, on growing into an adult is considered in the empowered group. What about women? When will they be considered empowered? Are they always going to be the weaker section? There is not statistics mentioning that during the period of year x to year y, these many women have been empowered and have entered the mainstream.”

It is curious to note how scarce is the awareness in regard with the issues of women beyond they being empowered or not, weak or not, influential or not, victimized or not.

The cost a woman pays for success is evident in her strength that pricks a man’s eye. If someone feels that being endowed with provisions can compensate for the luxuries such as that of rest and guiltless peace and freedom with unaccountability as opposed to a life of bondage under the name of security, well! what greater mockery could one create out of an oppressed life.

The community working towards better social life of women have traversed through terms from justice to equality to equity to empowerment to inclusion for dealing with the mentality of the society. While the society wants accolades for transition from the weaker section of a few, the suffering of loads of remaining wouldn’t change. The society needs to understand that services provided for the women considered as the weaker section doesn’t transform the woman’s life overnight, and definitely never empowered through them.

Empowerment takes a lot more than government policies and financial provisions. It takes a community and might take years to build an empowered woman from a traumatized one. While inclusivity might be an imperative, it acknowledges the importance of a community of strong, supporting, self-reliant women to model and to be a community.

Exploitation for ulterior gains:

It gets worse when these provisions and resources are exploited to fulfill ulterior motives. For instance, when businesses registered under women’s names are actually run by men. Registration is to seek benefits provided to the female population for promoting women representation in entrepreneurship.

Many women from the privileged society take benefits meant for the actual weaker section of the society, who are oblivious of their rights and provisions they can avail. In fact, at times they are also exploited by agents or intermediaries.

There are many women who are struggling to find the rightful exposure and make their place in the society, and economy. Attempts were made to influence the social and cultural restrictive norms through different policies. However, the manipulation and exploitation of the systems make it more and more tedious to implement these policies to achieve the set agenda of women empowerment and inclusion.

Conclusion:

India has been fighting caste- or gender- based discrimination through policies that aim for equity, equality, inclusivity and empowerment. However, equity and equality without empowerment and social inclusivity is like a sword in a scabbard. It is impossible for inclusive policies to work in the face of social exclusivity and biases.

Reservations have been one of its tools. Reservations have definitely helped in social mobility of a discriminated section of the society to some extent. However, what needs to be questioned is that can we eradicate the discriminatory perceptions about caste or gender through reservation policies? As inclusive as the policy of reservation seems, by design, on implementation, it just adds in to the shades of discrimination, biases and excluding beliefs of both the vulnerable and the dominating groups, with whomever the privilege lies.

The preventive measures are controls, while acts are implemented in the form of punishment. However, punishments can induce learning, may not necessarily induce mental readiness and behavioral change.

Unless we work on our beliefs and take steps towards understanding our co-habitants, it would be difficult to achieve inclusivity through change in policies, physical arrangements, reservations, laws and acts.