Deepak Dwivedi
IN December 2012, several moving slogans had emerged from the protests held in New Delhi against the gangrape that shook the nation. The most moving among them was ‘Nirbhaya is every woman. I am every woman’. The slogan succeeded in achieving political unity in protests that were not completely apolitical, even as they failed to achieve, societal zero-tolerance towards crimes against women. After a decade, the streets are resounding with another slogan – Beti Padhi To Sahi, Bachi Nahin (The daughter did get educated, but did not survive) – as public outrage rises against the Kolkata rapemurder. It is perhaps this blend of emotions that made Prime Minister Narendra Modi describe the outrage as jan-saamaanya ka akrosh (anger of the common man) during his Independence Day speech.
PM Modi did not specify the Kolkata case while speaking on women safety but the timely, succinct and essential mention will go down in the history of Independence Day speeches as poignant and morally courageous. It sticks out from the larger habit where accountability in sections of politics is as ragged and tattered as the public’s own understanding for the need for gender sensitivity and women’s safety. PM Modi called for swift investigation and harsher punishments in cases of crimes against women. In the 98-minute speech, the reference to women’s safety may have been short in terms of duration, but it echoed, blending into the development-oriented mentions made by him.
On development, the PM fondly mentioned the success of women Self-Help Groups (SHGs). He recognises the grit and gifts in developing and harnessing sisterhood, whether of the SHGs, of prosperity, of celebration, or the sisterhood achieved by the clogging of anger, pain and tears in women’s throats. Development is goaldriven, and goals, delivery and time-driven. In his women-centric, women-led and women-oriented development politics, PM Modi is trying to move towards accomplishing the time-marked goal of eliminating India’s problem of crime against women.
The time and opportunity to fix the problem is now. The country cannot enter the ‘golden era’ of the build-up to 2047 without fixing the problem of crime against women.
Development without women participation is unthinkable, lifeless, unsustainable and meaningless. Women participation, without their safety and security in all fronts and realms of life and work, is impossible and imprudent and would render the goal of 2047 either symbolic or abstract.
Development is power. It involves and uses gender power. Shakti, the divine and human manifestation of the goddess, propels the idea of power. Without Shakti – the combined strengths of an empowered and safe woman – its human manifestation is powerless. And the powerless cannot inspire the power of and for a developed nation.
PM Modi works on the Indic belief system while approaching development. The Indic understanding of prosperity and wellbeing keeps the Devi central — in worship, in work, discipline and adherence to domestic life and its celebration. Crimes against women and the resulting fear and anxieties corrode the idea of safety of families. The family unit sustains the nation. PM Modi views development as resting on the unit of home and family, which itself rests on women. Crimes against women, whether at home, workplace or public spaces, have the potential of rattling the very clockwork that is required for a developing nation.
